Translation Errors
by Sunshine Cove
Summary: What happens when you put a Russian, a Japanese, an American and a Chinese on the same team? Language barriers. Fun, right? And what do you do when you have language barriers? You get translators. Yup.
1. The all Important Intro

How do Japanese, Chinese, Russian and American teens communicate with each other? Simple, they don't, so the fact that Beyblade has these kids (Takao, Rei, Kai, and Max) all communicating coherently with each other doesn't make sense. They all speak different languages! (And the idea that they all speak English is quite absurd since Rei comes from an isolated village). This fan fiction is, well, about what happens when you have people who speak different languages on the same team; you get translators. Oh, and all the fun things that happens when things are misinterpreted...

Translation Error(s) starts near the ending of the qualifying tournament, where all characters have yet to meet each other, and where they all have stayed in their respective country until said tournament.

Just a few notes before I start… First off, I guess most people will already know this but, here goes nothing. I do not own Beyblade or any other ideas etc. that are related to it. I also do not own any other copyrighted material that may appear in this fic (eg. brand names, other names of series etc.) Okay… Basically, I don't own anything in this fic except the idea itself, the writing, and my OC's that will be appearing later on as translators. Another thing, most of the time, things people think are placed in _italics_. That's about it, so I guess this is where I start the story?

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Takao

Takao sighed, rolled over, and lay there on his back, casually resting his head on his arms. The qualifying tournament had been just as easy as he had suspected, however, there had been a few bumps. The bumps? People who had actually proved to be a challenge! And it wasn't like he was getting shown up by people from his own country. He was getting problems from people who weren't! The people who stuck out like sore thumbs, here in Japan anyway. It wasn't like there were a whole whack of them, just like... three? Or, those were the ones he had spotted. Didn't matter. It was they who had caused him his woes.

There was some blonde kid who had an absolutely horrible taste in fashion, even Takao could see that; another was raven-haired, and he really wouldn't have stuck out so much if he hadn't worn the Chinese Yin Yang symbol on his back, and forehead... Then there was some blue haired teen, with the front lighter than the back. He had probably dyed it; a person couldn't possibly be born with blue hair, right? Takao just let that thought hang for a moment before brushing it off as he stood up. Time for some undercover sneaky spy work. He needed the low-down on these kids. He needed to know their country, their language, their blades, hey! Maybe he'd even try and find out their names. He would work tirelessly until all of that information was his. Well, just as soon as he got something to eat, and took a nap...

Max

Max looked around in amazement. This place… Tokyo… Was gigantic! He had been to New York before, but nothing could have prepared him for something of THIS magnitude! He seemed so small and insignificant, heck, people around here _treated _him like that. Nobody seemed to like foreigners. Especially American foreigners. Basically, nobody knew enough English to properly communicate with him, and he was stretched beyond his limits just saying 'Konichiwa.' He could have just competed in the qualifying tournament back at home… But NOOOOO, his mom had to be stubborn and decide that she wanted to size up the competition. She never even considered how he, Max, would feel getting pulled along to some alien planet where he was an outsider. "Great, thanks mom" he grumbled to himself, drawing some attention from passers-by. _I guess they've never heard someone speak English before… _Well… It wasn't only that. Not only did he speak English when the rest of these people spoke Japanese, but he had a mop of very blond hair. That and… He was wearing some of the strangest clothes that had ever hit the face of the Earth (A/N no offence) Actually, scratch that, he'd changed. For the whole tournament Max had worn the brightest clothes he owned, because they were the only clothes he could find. _Stupid mom had to go and get my luggage lost… stupid, stupid, stupid…_ Luckily, his luggage had come in just a few hours ago, and he'd been able to change into something half decent. Some jeans and a hoodie had relieved him of the stinking mass that he called clothes for… way too long. Now Max walked along, hands shoved in his pockets, and turned his thoughts to the tournament. He just found it easier to think of that instead of his lost-ness.

He had only spotted two others who also didn't quite seem to fit in with this… Tokyo place. Asking his mom about them turned out to be a good idea since she was some sort of stalker and knew basically everything about anyone competing here. Or just about anywhere else he wanted to know about. He could have asked her whether or not some random guy over there had clipped his toenails last night or not and she'd have known the answer. Seriously, it was scary how she was taking this tournament. The raven-haired teen who boldly wore the Yin Yang symbol was Chinese… And his name currently evaded the blonde. The other boy's name as well, had flown out the window. Which other boy? Well, the cold, blue haired one with the really long scarf. Even though Max couldn't remember the other teen's name, he remembered the nationality. The blue haired teen was Russian. That… was about all he could salvage from his talk with his mom. Sad thing being? His mom had told him about five minutes ago before he decided to go on a Tokyo expedition… and get lost. Sighing inwardly, Max resolved to ask for directions from random people until he got a decent answer. Pointless though it sounded, he really had no other choice. Who says men can't ask for directions? Of course, the fact that they couldn't understand a word he was saying helped; he could have been asking about the weather for all they knew…

Kai

Was he irritated? No. Angry? Nope. Ticked off? Still no. He was well beyond any of those that he doubted the angriest person in the world could rival him. And what had gotten so under his skin? Stupid fan girls of course. Kai glared at the mass of giggling girls permanently pressed against the glass of the training room offered in the hotel he had taken residence in. He tried desperately to ignore them, but they simply refused to be ignored. How irritating. The mass steadily grew within the few minutes he had entered the room, and some had even been as bold as to enter themselves. Mostly they stuck to the far wall, preferring to look at him rather than to make contact. Suited him just fine, he wouldn't have acknowledged they were there anyway. That or he'd have knocked some sense into them. Right now though, training was number one priority. Beating them to a pulp so that they'd have to breath out of tubes could wait till later. Or not. One of the braver ones had suddenly decided that she wanted more than just to look at him, and started approaching in his general direction. Honestly, these girls didn't know when to stop! Kai reviewed how many ways his privacy had been intruded upon within the last few weeks of arriving for the qualifying tournament. 1. They stalked him. Kai couldn't recall the number of times he'd looked behind him to see a mass of fan girls chattering excitedly amongst themselves. It was that often. 2… He didn't get to think of the second reason because there was a large ruckus outside the training room. Obviously these girls were getting on the staff's nerves as well, because the giggling faces quickly disappeared.

FINALLY some peace and quiet so he could concentrate properly! Kai quickly chose the strongest looking blader of the ones assembled in the room, and challenged him to a battle. Even with the language barrier, the boy caught the gist of what Kai was offering, and eagerly accepted. Many of the other boys quickly arranged themselves around the dish to watch, offering cheers and encouragement. The battle commenced, and two seconds later, it was over. Well, maybe not two seconds later, but close enough. The other teen was left wondering what hit him, as Kai scanned the amassed crowd for faces from the tournament. _Weaklings…All of them weaklings… _Some he did recognize, but quickly remembered that they had been the first ones eliminated from the tournament. Kai came to the conclusion that no one worth battling was there. If he wanted a challenge, he'd simply have to search out the teens from other countries. They at least had been half decent. _Finding them should be easy enough. _

The Japanese media had made a huge fuss over the fact that they had Chinese, Russian and American teens blading in their tournament. Obviously they were wondering why these three hadn't opted to compete in their own tournaments. To Kai's knowledge, the other two had no real reason to be there other than the fact they could be. He was especially interested in how the Chinese kid had gotten his hands on enough money for a plane ticket to Japan. Apparently, he came from a remote village deep in the country of China, so how he afforded a ticked was beyond Kai. How he knew this? His grandfather had sent a translator with him. The man had given up and quit the day after they arrived in Tokyo, with pay for a month and a ticket back home. Kai would make sure that the man was sought out and punished thoroughly, but not because he left. The translator had been boorish and slow, and he stumbled over words often. The punishment would be because he had not performed the job he had been paid for.

Kai had rarely used the translator, opting instead to use surroundings to catch a sense of things. The only information that mattered to him was where he was blading, who he was against, and when the battle was. All but the latter was the same no matter what language you used. And the tournament even displayed photographs of the opponent, so he didn't have to read anything. For him right now, not understanding was fine.

Rei

Were Japanese people good at sniffing out foreigners or what? Rei hadn't been at the airport for more than five seconds when he started attracting curious looks. People pointed him out, giggled over him, and spoke rapidly in Japanese. Mainly girls, but what had surprised him was that some boys as well had joined. It was scary, in a weird sort of way. What had set him immediately apart from the rest of them were his clothes. His headband bore the Chinese Yin Yang symbol, and it was also proudly displayed on the back of his robe. The only reason he had worn the garb was because he had sort of wanted people to recognize he wasn't Japanese. He'd had people approach him and immediately start talking in Japanese, wearing his traditional garb was the only way to set himself apart.

Since right now the qualifiers were over, and he was simply wandering aimlessly, Rei had changed into something else. One of the only things that people recognized him by were his clothes, so he had tried to find something that was completely different so he wouldn't be bothered. Fan girls, hopeful bladers, and even fan boys alike only really seemed to respond to him when he was wearing his robes. So to simply stop attracting attention, all he had to do was change. _Well, at least it gives me a little peace, if not complete peace. It's something._ He still drew a little attention – what with his ponytail and his eyes – but not quite as much. It got hot in Tokyo, so he had chosen the lightest clothing he had on hand. A pair of jeans, and a sleeveless white shirt with a torn piece of cloth acting as a headband let him blend in fairly well with the rest of the crowd. It didn't shout 'Hey look at me! I'm not from around here!' and it wasn't much different from what most other people were wearing right now. What with the smog and the humidity, Rei was getting a little dizzy. _How anyone can deal with these conditions 24/7 is beyond me… _

Deciding to go on a tour of the world, and starting with Japan was… an okay idea. At least he'd been able to sign up for the qualifiers here in Tokyo. With the language barrier, it had been a long and strenuous affair, and he had held up quite a line of people. Most were still a little bitter with him, and the fact he had beat them at their own game hadn't helped. He'd seen his own image more than once, flashing on the occasional television screen as he walked by, or pasted on the side of a wall with scribbled messages. There were about two other teens who were getting the same treatment, and he wasn't sure if this meant good or bad things. The media was probably not being too nice about anything though, that much he guessed.

As Rei walked along, he started regretting his choice to fly here first. He had been saving money for quite a while, not knowing what to do with it. Odd jobs here and there, and his part time job down in the city had provided him with enough money for a plane ticket after a few years. His family was contented living where they were, no matter how many times Rei had offered to use his money for them. They had simply reassured him they were fine, and to keep saving up. When he thought he had enough, he had said a tearful goodbye to his village, and left for the wonders of Japan. He was now quite comfortably set up in a small inn as much out of the way of the hustle and bustle as it got. The board wasn't very expensive, and Rei had found another part time job working at a small café nearby. He had simply to memorize the menu, and the sounds that went with it. Waiting on tables wasn't that hard, and many people enjoyed him even with the inability to speak the same language. Yes, his life right now was comfortable enough for him. When the time came, Rei vowed, he'd face the problems that had been nagging him, but for now all he had to do was brace himself for the worst, and pray. The worst, at this moment, was getting plowed into and almost knocked over. His reflexes kicked in, and he was able to stay on his feet. The other teen was not quite as fortunate, and landed un-gracefully on the ground. All Rei could see at this moment was a mop of very blond hair…

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Well, this is my fic... It's long, and I just noticed that it gets longer and longer as it goes along... Don't mind my run-on sentences, that's just the way I write, lol. Any guesses as to who the blond is? Any suggestions or constructive critisizmare welcomed, anything to help me write this thing! lol. So yup. Also, if anyone could tell me what Mr. Dickinson's and Kenny's names are in the Japanese version, that'd be a huge help :D This fic is rated T 'cause... It'll get confusing. That's just about it though. So ya. Till next update!


	2. First Encounters

And so we return... Lol, back for more? Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I was only hoping for about maybe 2 or so, considering how strange the idea is. So I believe that responses are owed.

psychonerd 5: Lol, it IS a kid's show after all. Things don't exactly have to make sense; I mean, if they can have bit beasts then obviously if they speak different languages that's not a huge problem. This is just my take on it, lol.

TaintedWolf: Thanks for the enthusiastic welcome! Fan? I have a fan? No way! Haha... Anyway, nope, unfortunately no pairings. Just the way I write sometimes people think MY characters are gay or something... So if I do that with the characters from Beyblade then it doesn't really mean anything.

phoenixfire the thundertiger: Thank you! I needed those names. See, my problem is that I don't know anybody's Jap names other than the Blade Breakers. The only reason I know their names is because I read random posts and things from everywhere. If where you found that was a site then could you give it to me? That'd really be appreciated!

Kenzie Jadenwie: Thanks! Lol, is Absolute Anime a site? If it is, then could you send it to me? That'd really be appreciated 'cause I don't know where to find anyone's Jap names. Or I could just use the English ones, but that'd be wierd... 'Specially 'cause I'm already using Jap names for the four guys. Anyway, thanks!

Aoiki Moon-chan: Not planning on stopping it anytime soon The only thing is that with life all hectic and school killing me I may not get to update as much as I want. So if I disappear for a while you'll know why. I'll try and make it as interesting as possible, promise!

Darksouled Saiyanphoenix: Really? I didn't know that! Lol, all I know is the butchered stuff from the English dub. I haven't read the manga or anything, so if I mess stuff up anywhere please tell me! I guess I'm just being oblivious or something, lol. I'll just keep plowing on the way I'm going and see where it gets me

Kioymiko: Lol, I know eh? It's sorta obvious that since they're travelling so much then they wouldn't be able to speak EVERY language they come across. So ya. Lol, it's been on your mind too? Cool, I'm not alone!

KiraraCutie: I'm updating now! Haha... Anywayz, thanks for the praise.

Alright, before we begin... Here's the disclaimer! I do not own Beyblade (no duh) or any other copyrighted material that may appear in this fic (like brand names and things). All I own is this idea, and my OCs that will be appearing later on. Oh! And my typing, don't forget my typing!

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Max

Max had been walking along, staring straight ahead but not really paying attention to where he was going. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground. It wasn't that he'd hit the person hard; it was just that he had been so surprised by the impact that he sort of leapt backwards. And fell straight onto his butt. _Ouch… _He muttered a quick "gomennasai" before looking up to see who had had the misfortune of walking into him. Unfortunately, the other boy's face looked confused. _My Japanese isn't that bad, is it? Could have sworn that was what my mom told me to say if I ever did anything rude…_ He scanned the other boy's face just to make sure that it was confusion and not disgust. Definitely confusion.

Without another word, the other boy held out a hand and nodded at Max, who accepted it. He was then hoisted to his feet with strength the raven-haired teen didn't quite look capable of. At least, not when Max looked at him from the ground up. Once they were on the same level though, he noticed that the other boy, though lean, had a sturdy build. What little bit of flesh he had on him was toned, though if one were to just quickly look him over all he'd look was thin. The other teen was looking over him uncertainly, as if he didn't know what to do. Max suddenly realized that he'd been staring almost open mouthed at the other boy. His face coloured a little, so to bring attention away from himself he motioned to a nearby bench so they could get out of the way. People had started to look strangely at them, and Max didn't blame them. He and the other teen had stalled a little of the bustling traffic, and some people were getting angry. So, both of the teens headed over to the empty bench. Figures, you bump into someone and you can't just get up, apologize and walk off. Nope, not when you meet a fellow outsider.

You see, Max had figured out just who this kid was anyway. By some twisted chance of fate, he'd bumped into the Chinese kid from the tournament. How he'd recognized the other teen was simple; not many people here in Japan had such long raven black hair, and golden eyes. What still evaded him was the other boy's name. Max motioned to himself when they sat down, and said "Max".

"Maheekasu?" the other boy asked, looking lost.

"Mm-ah-cks" Max repeated, slowing down the name and pointing to himself. Confusion was still written all over the other teen's face. Was his name really that hard to pronounce?

"Mm-aoe-cas?" the boy looked desperately at Max who sighed. Perhaps asking the other teen's name would be easier. "Mm-ae-cks?" Max guessed that was as close as it would get, so he nodded. Instantly a smile graced the other boy's lips as he pointed to himself. "Rei" he said simply. That was easy.

"Rei" Max repeated, and the other boy looked satisfied. So now he could call the other teen Rei and not 'the other kid over there'. Max noticed that Rei was repositioning himself so that he could see his face better. Maybe that helped his concentration, seeing the other person's face, Max didn't know. They sat there in a few seconds of uncomfortable silence until Rei opened his mouth.

"Beyblade?" he asked, looking Max over and looking particularly interested in his hair. Max fidgeted uncomfortably under the teen's gaze as it swept over him. He just realized he hadn't bothered to comb his hair in a while. How long, he didn't know, but it had been long enough. His hair was now sticking up wildly in every which way, and he nervously tried flattening it. Rei's face was lit again by a smile, this time accompanied by a laugh. It wasn't a mean laugh, just a mocking sort of playful one. Max understood now why there were so many, err, _people_ liked him, uh, a lot. Rei seemed like the kind of guy who could hang out with anyone and get along fine. The raven-haired teen was now looking a little bit concernedly at Max, who shook himself out of his thoughts and brought himself back to Earth. In answer to the one word question, he nodded his head.

"You?" he asked, temporarily forgetting that Rei spoke another language. Max instantly realized his mistake, and gestured to the other teen with one hand, and bringing out his blade with the other. No matter where he went, Draciel was sure to be with him. Rei nodded his head and reached into his pocket to bring out his own. He proudly held it out for Max to examine. During the qualifiers, Max had seen this kid cut down some tough competition with that blade. He hadn't really been able to get a proper look at it though, what with it spinning so fast and all. Now Max could get a proper look at this amazing blade. It was battered, and it looked like it was a little bit old, but when Rei gently placed it into his palm, Max felt its power thrumming through him. There, in the centre of the blade was a fierce looking white tiger. No wonder his mom was constantly referring to him as "The Tiger" instead of Rei-Kon.

That's right, Max had finally remembered a small scrap of what his mom had told him about this kid. According to her sources (which were never wrong, somehow) this was Rei-Kon, who came from a remote village in China where they spoke Mandarin, or something extremely similar to it. Oh, and that he was a very attractive young man, and yes, his hair and eyes really were that colour. Max was dead serious, his mom had told him that. _It's times like these I wonder just what the heck she's thinking… _It was true though, Rei really wasn't bad looking. In fact, he had this sort of poised, exotic look to him, even when he was dressed down from his robes. Max slapped himself mentally for even thinking that. _It was mom that influenced that thought, mom made me think that!_ Max realized with horror that he had been muttering to himself when he looked up and saw the confused looking face of Rei. He was instantly glad the other boy spoke a completely different language, and that he hadn't understood any of the muttered comments.

Rei looked confused, so Max gave a reassuring smile and handed back the blade. He hoped the other teen would get that he had meant no harm. A look of unease passed over Rei's face, but it was quickly replaced by glowing smile that must have won so many girls' hearts. Max grinned too, enjoying the company Rei offered, and that he didn't seem to mind Max looked way different from the other people here. They chatted a little, before parting ways and waving goodbye. It was as soon as Rei was out of sight that Max realized he had no clue where to go from there. _Stupid lost-ness…_

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Confused yet? Lol, sorry this is so confusing, but I don't really know how else to write it. Any suggestions would help! The blonde that Rei bumped into in the last chapter... Was Max! I guess it's obvious now that you've read this chapter but... Ya. Lol, 'till next update!


	3. The Invite to Takao

Wow, back for more? Lol, congrats on living through the first two chapters! If you've made it this far without going completely insane because of the way I write, you should give yourself a pat on the back. Seriously. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, either new or coming back for more! It's really appreciated! Anyhow, welcome to the third installment of Translation Error(s) I hope that no one gets too lost.

The Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material that may appear in this fic, this includes but is not limited to Beyblade, brand name clothing etc. I only own this idea; my OCs (which aren't here yet, but will be) and the typing it took to write (type) all of this. Hope you like it!

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Takao

Takao woke with a start as Kyouju came hurtling through his door. The shorter boy was panting, out of breath, and looking thoroughly excited. He wasn't usually the type to barge in on others, and was usually apologizing profusely by now; but there he was, hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath. Takao sat up on his bed, scratched the back of his head and yawned a little bit over animatedly as he waited to hear what had gotten the usually oh-so-polite Kyouju into a flurry. He didn't have to wait long.

"Takao-san! Takao-san!" Kyouju's voice was hurried and excited as he looked up at the blue haired boy. "Takao-san, your ojii-san told me to come and tell you that…!" he paused for breath before bursting out the news. "GogoroDaitenji-sanwantstomeetyouandhesaysthatyou'llbeonhisnewteamandI'msoexcitedforyoubutI'msortofjeloustoobecausethisteamisgoingtobethebestoneyet, atleastthat'swhatDaitenji-sansaidandsoyouhavetogotohis-"

"Okay… Slow down! Geez Kyouju-kun, you sound like you're going to have a heart attack or something dude. Just breath in… and out… That's it" Takao watched as his friend struggled to breath normally and just had to chuckle to himself. He'd never seen the other boy quite so wound up about anything. "Alright now, let's try this again. Ojii-san told you to tell me what?"

"That Gogoro Daitenji-san wants to meet you because he says you have potential as a blader." Kyouju said, struggling to keep his speed normal. "And, get this! He says he wants you on the team he's planning on fielding in the tournament. The actual tournament!" his voice went all dreamy as he relayed the facts to his friend. "Daitenji-san is really famous in the blading world you know! I think that it's quite an honour that he considers you good enough to be on his team!"

Takao was stunned at the news. Chairman Gogoro Daitenji actually thought he had enough potential to be on his team. _Of course, how could someone as awesome as me not have enough potential? I'm surprised he didn't ask me sooner! _Kyouju was looking up at the blue haired boy in something that could only be described as absolute awe. There was dead silence in the room before Takao suddenly jumped out of bed and started doing a weird sort of victory dance. "I can't believe it! This is the most awesome thing in the world! Dude, so when do I meet his Gogoro Daitenji?" he wanted to know all of the details so he wouldn't miss anything.

"Your Ojii-san said that the man who came to tell him left an invitation. He told your ojii-san to give it to you when you were finished you nap" Kyouju looked down at his feet here. "When I arrived I was so excited about the news that I couldn't help myself! I just had to tell you then and there!" the brunettes face resembled something of a tomato then, as he shuffled his feet and looked up meekly. The boy looked so apologetic that Takao just had to burst out laughing.

"Sorry Kyouju-kun! It's just… You don't have to apologize dude. If you hadn't come, I probably wouldn't have heard about the whole thing 'cause my ojii-san would have probably forgotten! So dude, I owe you one!" Takao laughed a little bit nervously trying to look composed as he grabbed his hat and ran out the door. He really wanted to read that invitation!

"Uhm, Takao-san?"

"Yes Kyouju-kun?"

"Your ojii-san is out getting groceries… and I don't know where he put the invitation"

Takao was very put out about this, but he quickly regained his composure as he walked back into his room and flopped onto the bed. Of course, he should have known that his ojii-san would have to get groceries at some point… Takao remembered that after a particularly demanding training period he had practically eaten everything edible in the house, and that was also the reason that he was taking his nap. Eating a lot and training a lot tended to make him very tired, and so he had decided to conk out for a while. He figured that since the qualifying tournament was over now he'd have some time to relax before it was announced which team he was on. Apparently not. This Gogoro Daitenji guy like to keep things moving, and if he was planning to field this team in the upcoming tournament then they'd have only a few weeks to train and get used to being on a team, oh… so much fun. Takao crossed his fingers that he was on a team with people he knew, but the odds were working against him. The only other people that had proved a challenge were the people from other countries, those foreigners. They didn't speak Japanese, the nerve! His train of thought was quickly interrupted as he heard footsteps on the walk outside.

"Hey! Ojii-san! Yo, dude, I want my invitation from Daitenji-san!" Takao yelled out through the doorway as soon as he noticed it was his geechan walking around.

"This is the thanks I get for going out and buying more groceries? Not even a "Ojii-san, you're the greatest person in the world for going out and getting more food even after I ate us out of house and home!" Ojii-san looked offended as he walked into Takao's room.

"Look, the angry façade is NOT working for you Ojii-san, so hand over the invite!" Takao stuck out his tongue and tried to sound as demanding as possible. He _really_ wanted that invitation!

"What do you say hm?"

"Uh, give me the invitation?

"No…"

"Give me the invitation… please?"

Ojii-san sighed as he rummaged within his robes to find the envelope that his grandchild was so desperate to receive. It wasn't like if he kept demanding a half decent request he'd get one, so he handed over the envelope with the words "For Kinomiyou Takao-san" to Takao.

"Awesome! Thanks Ojii-san!" he jumped around for a little while, caught in the excitement, before Kyouju politely interrupted.

"Uh, Takao-san? Aren't you going to, you know, open it?" He asked, looking over at the bluenette anxiously. One would have thought that the envelope was for him, and not for Takao because he looked just as anxious and just as excited. Takao held his breath as he peeled off the official looking seal on the front to reach inside for the folded piece of paper inside. "Will you hurry up, I can't stand it!" This comment was most unlike Kyouju, and Takao couldn't help but slow down just to annoy the bouncing brunette. Finally, the paper was out of the envelope and Takao slowly unfolded it, relishing the moment. Absolute silence followed, and everyone held their breath as he unfolded the last fold. The note read:

**Dear Kinomiyou Takao-san,**

**Congratulations on being accepted onto Gogoro Daitenji's newest team! Should you accept this invitation **_(Why would I not?) _**and provided that the others invited accept as well, you will be teammates with: MIZUHARA Max; HIWATARI Kai; and KON-Rei. As you should know, these people come from other countries and speak languages other than Japanese. For this reason – and the fact that you will be touring a good part of the world we will be hiring translators to assist you in your communication of ideas and banter. We will be reviewing our choices in translators as a team, and should you have any concerns you can always reach the facility or company that these translators come from. All information will be provided to you about these translators prior to your decision. Please remember that you do have the option of not joining this team, and that you can always be fielded next year with another, all Japanese team. Should you decline this invitation, we fully understand, and will keep you in mind come the next qualifying tournament. **

**Should you accept this invitation, you will also accept the fact that you are joining a team with four different languages being spoken at one time. You also accept the fact that you will be fielded with this team in the upcoming tournament, which – should all go according to plan – will be held within around 2-3 weeks. You accept the fact that translators will be used at all times for communication, and the fact that everything you say will be going through another person before reaching it's intended listener. **

**If you accept to these terms, you are to meet with Chairman Gogoro Daitenji in his office within a day of receiving this invitation. You will find Daitenji-san's office on the fourth floor of the Beyblade Corp. building room 202. Please arrive at 4:00 PM promptly, as Daitenji-san's schedule is very tight. **

**We thoroughly hope that we will see you,**

**Keiichiro Makimoto**

**Personal translator to Chairman Gogoro Daitenji. **

Takao finished reading the invitation aloud, and whistled loudly. "Man, this sounds hard core. I'm stuck on a team with those foreigners!" He shook his head in dismay. "I don't like the sound of those translators, dude, they could purposely screw up what I'm saying and make everyone hate me or something!"

"Don't forget, you can always just decline the invitation and then you don't have to deal with that" Kyouju just had to remind him of that fact.

"No way man! This is the offer of a lifetime! I don't want to miss out on being in a tournament!" Takao's headstrong side was coming out, and Kyouju wasn't about to argue with it. "Besides, I guess I could get used to being on a team with a bunch of foreigners… They seemed okay when I met 'em at the qualifiers. 'Cept for that Russian dude, he's nasty. Wouldn't acknowledge I was there! The nerve." Takao pouted, before a grin spread across his face. "So…Ojii-san, you gonna find me a ride to Beyblade Corp?"

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Ojii-san – Grandfather

**Edit: Thank you to personne du monde for telling me that Grandfather was actually Ojii-san. The reason I thought it was Geechan was because that's what I'm used to hearing. So ya. Sorry about the wrong translation! (lol, my fic is about translation errors… and look what happens!) Also, if anyone could provide the ages of the guys... I'd be really greatful!**

Basically, I really don't know what happens after the qualifiers (not because I haven't been paying attention, simply because my memory's bad and I haven't seen Beyblade in forever and a half). So... if I get anything wrong, don't hesitate to correct me. I'm just making stuff up as I go along here, and so if you actually know what happens and I write something else, if you inform me that'd be great! (Like, I don't know times, the order of tournaments, when they meet people, that sort of stuff) I know I keep saying that I own my OCs, but you haven't seen any yet. They're coming... In a few chapters or so. I don't know why I keep writing I own them when you haven't met them yet. It makes me feel special? I dunno. Anyhow, congrats on slugging your way through yet another update!

-Rae


	4. The Invites to Everyone Else

Arrgghh… So I went to change Chapter Three because I had translated 'Grandfather' wrong (sorry, it's just that I'm used to hearing 'Geechan') and then, what does my computer decide to do? It decides that it won't let me update! I couldn't post it, even after making a few minor changes (basically putting in Ojii-san instead of Geechan). Blah.

I now proudly have… 25 reviews! This is exciting news, I'm really happy! My favourite number is 5, so any number with 5 at the end is a good number. That's awesome… 25 reviews. I sort of still can't believe it, after only about 2 chapters too! Crazy. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone, and thank you to personne du monde for correcting me.

I'd never heard of Mary Sues before Tainted Wolf pointed out that they hoped my OCs weren't going to be Mary Sue-ish. So I decided to do a little bit of research, and tell me if I'm wrong, but Mary Sues are girls who are absolutely flawless? Don't worry… They're not; at least, I don't think they are. When they appear (which, should all go according to plan, is next chapter) you can judge for yourself whether or not they're too perfect. If they are, then tell me, and I'll try my best to change that. There's one of them in this chapter, just to tell you. He was mentioned in the last chapter; let's see if you can guess who it is before you read it! Anyway, I guess you're getting bored of reading all of this, so I'll just start.

Disclaimer: Well, to simplify things: I only own this idea, the typing that went into it, and my OCs, one of which is in this chapter. The rest are coming soon to a computer near you…

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Rei

Finding his way back to the inn was easy, he'd programmed himself to memorize certain landmarks to show him where to turn and when. As he walked along, Rei found himself thinking of the yellow haired boy that he'd met while exploring. Rei had never seen such coloured hair before; it was very strange to him. Here in Japan, they had black hair, and the same could be said for China. Especially in the village he had grown up in. People could have yellow hair? Who knew? It was very… different, to say the least. And the boy's eyes too. They had been blue like the sky, such a clear blue colour for eyes! Rei remembered seeing the boy at the qualifiers, he'd been a very good blader. And his name… It was hard to say. Rei tried saying it over and over again. "Maecks… No, it was something like, Maahycks. Or…" how did English people make such sounds with their mouths? It was so hard! No matter how hard he tried, Rei couldn't get the name to sound right on his tongue. It didn't roll properly, and he had trouble getting his tongue around it. _Very strange names they give their children… How they pronounce these names fascinates me. _

In no time, Rei found himself at the door to the inn he had taken residence in. It was called "The Water Lily" and had a faded wooden sign hanging over the door depicting a beautiful flower in full bloom. The place was an old-fashioned architecture design, and it had a homely feel to it when you walked in. The foyer was humbly furnished with rich colours, and a desk sat in the corner of the small room. A few people stopped talking when he entered, but he'd gotten used to that. There was a stairway tucked into the opposite corner of the desk, and he headed for the second floor. His room was the fourth one on the left as you walked down the hall, and pretty china lamps installed in the wall cast a warm glow through the whole hall. Rei sort of sighed as he turned the key in the lock of the door and walked in.

He had only been in the door of his room for a few seconds before it was getting politely knocked at. Surprised, he turned around – half of his foot out of it's shoe – and gently opened the door a little bit. There stood a young man – maybe only in his late twenties or early thirties – wearing a three-piece suit and tie. He was holding a briefcase in one hand, and he had a pleasant smile on his face. "Hello, are you Mr. Kon?" he asked, giving Rei the once-over. Rei simply nodded in shock at the fact that now, people were stalking him home! This shock was only added to by the fact that Rei suddenly realized that he had understood every single word that man had said. His mouth went slack. The man simply grinned at the look on the raven-haired teen's face before introducing himself. "My name is Keiichiro Makimoto, I'm a translator, that's how I know how to speak your language. Don't worry; I'm not a stalker. I guess it's good to hear someone speak your language eh?" Rei was simply dumbfounded. This was crazy; there were people in Japan who could speak Mandarin? Not only that, but there was no accent to it. Rei clearly understood every single word that came out of that man's mouth. Whatever these 'translators' were, they sure were very impressive!

"What… what is a translator?" he asked, hazarding a guess that this man – Keiichiro was it? – could understand him.

"A translator… Well, basically we're people who help to change one language into another. So, for example, you speak Mandarin, and basically everyone else here in Japan speaks Japanese. I could change what you say into Japanese so people could understand you, and I could do the same thing except backwards. So, I change what Japanese people are saying into Mandarin. I could also read and write things for you if you wanted me to" he said, nodding his head. "Do you sort of get it?" Rei nodded, and stepped back a little bit from the door.

"Would you like to come in? I would like to hear about this 'translator' business more. It sounds interesting, and very helpful" Rei motioned inside and moved out of the way so that the man could walk in. He promptly took off his shoes and stood on the mat, apparently waiting for Rei to finish removing his shoes. "How did you find out where I was taking residence? This inn is very small, not many people have heard of it. Did someone send you?" there were so many questions he wanted answered, now that he knew this man could speak to and understand him.

His room wasn't that luxurious, but then again, he hadn't picked it for how fancy it was. Rei had been simply looking for somewhere that was not very loud, and where he could get piece and quiet. It wasn't like he was used to all of this indoor luxury anyway, where he lived things were a little more rough. There was a pull out couch that he had folded up neatly, for there was no actual bed in the room. It had taken him forever to figure out how to use the thing, and there was quite a bit of frustration attached to that memory. There was a small coffee table nestled in next to the couch, and off to the side was a kitchenette with all the essentials. A stove, a cupboard and a refrigerator. There was no separator between the living quarters and the kitchenette, so as Rei offered the man a seat he was able to set off making a pot of tea and listen at the same time.

"I was sent by Chairman Gogoro Daitenji, have you ever heard of him?" the man had only answered half of his question, but Rei didn't mind.

"No, I have never heard of him."

"Well, he's in charge of putting together teams of Beyblade hopefuls for tournaments. He's been watching you since the beginning of the qualifiers, and let me tell you, he's been impressed. I don't know much about this 'sport' – I only translate for Mr. Daitenji, I don't follow tournaments or anything – but just watching you blade a few times, it's amazing!" Rei paused for a moment as he reached for the teapot; embarrassed that someone was flattering him so. Keiichiro grinned at him before continuing. "Mr. Daitenji sent me with an invitation. You can read it if you like, it's in Mandarin so you don't have to worry about not understanding it. Either that or I can just tell you. What would you like?" he waited patiently as Rei put the tea on and walked over to sit next to him.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to read the invitation please" no sooner had the words left his mouth than Keiichiro had popped his briefcase open and retrieved the envelope. Rei was impressed, his name was neatly printed on the front; addressed to "Mr. Rei-Kon". He fiddled with the seal on the front before opening the envelope and pulling out the folded piece of paper. It read:

**Dear Mr. Rei-Kon**

**Congratulations on being accepted onto Gogoro Daitenji's newest team! Should you accept this invitation****and provided that the others invited accept as well, you will be teammates with: MIZUHARA Max; HIWATARI Kai; and KINOMIYOU Takao. As you should know, these people come from many different countries and speak various different languages. For this reason – and the fact that you will be touring a good part of the world – we will be hiring translators to assist you in your communication of ideas and banter. We will be reviewing our choices in translators as a team, and should you have any concerns you can always reach the facility or company that these translators come from. All information will be provided to you about these translators prior to your decision. Please remember that you do have the option of not joining this team, and that we will think no less of you if you return to China. We acknowledge the fact that we are asking a lot of you by inviting you to join a team with such problems as not being able to communicate in the same language. **

**Should you accept this invitation, you will also accept the fact that you are joining a team with four different languages being spoken at one time. You also accept the fact that you will be fielded with this team in the upcoming tournament, which – should all go according to plan – will be held within around 2-3 weeks. You accept the fact that translators will be used at all times for communication, and the fact that everything you say will be going through another person before reaching it's intended listener. **

**If you accept to these terms, you are to meet with Chairman Gogoro Daitenji in his office within a day of receiving this invitation. You will find Daitenji-san's office on the fourth floor of the Beyblade Corp. building room 202. Please arrive at 4:00 PM promptly, as Daitenji-san's schedule is very tight. **

**We thoroughly hope that we will see you,**

**Keiichiro Makimoto**

**Personal translator to Chairman Gogoro Daitenji.**

Rei looked from the invitation to the man who had given it to him, unbelieving. He was to be on a team? They were asking him – Rei-Kon – to be on a Japanese team? "No way" was all he could manage.

"Is that a 'I don't accept your invitation' sort of 'no way' or is that a 'I don't believe this is happening' sort of 'no way'?" Keiichiro joked, looking over at Rei.

"It's a 'I don't believe this is happening' sort of 'no way'" Rei responded, still looking down at the piece of paper held in his hand. "Mr. Daitenji… He really wants me on this team?" the raven-haired teen looked over at Keiichiro, thinking that maybe this man was playing a trick on him. He couldn't possibly be wanted on a team that Japan was putting together. It wasn't possible! Rei shook his head a few times and considered asking Mr. Makimoto to pinch him or something. It was overwhelming, to say the least. He sat there for a few seconds and stared at the paper held in his hand. "If I accept… are you going to be one of these 'translators' for our team?" Keiichiro shook his head.

"I'm assigned to Mr. Daitenji, I translate for him and him only. It would be going against my contract to leave and take a job somewhere else. Plus, I'd feel really bad leaving him like that" Keiichiro smiled and continued reassuringly. "Besides, I'm sure that if you do accept you'll find a translator just as good if not better than me! With four young men like you, I'm sure that there are going to be people lining up to translate for you guys. You especially are very popular at this moment. Anyway, if Mr. Daitenji approves of the translator you guys choose then they're a good person. Mr. Daitenji is a very good judge of character, he won't stick you with someone who's stuck up or who isn't dedicated to their craft." He smiled before standing up. "You have a day to decide what you'd like to do. Remember, you can always decline. If you'd like to meet your teammates before you make your final decision, just come and visit for the meeting and then decide after. There's money in there to get you a cab to Beyblade Corp. I'm sure that you'll figure out what to do after that, you seem like a very smart young man." Smartly snapping his briefcase shut and standing up straight, Keiichiro headed for the door. "I do hope that we meet again Mr. Kon, it's been a pleasure." And with those words, he walked out the door and down the hall.

Rei sat there for a few minutes, thinking over what the man had said. He had liked Mr. Makimoto; the man was pleasant and well mannered. If his translator was like that, Rei thought that he wouldn't mind having one. And since Mr. Daitenji was such a good judge of character, the chances were good that he'd get a translator like that. Rei was wakened from his thoughts at the urgent boiling of the teapot he had forgotten he'd put on. He had made enough for two, but it seemed he wouldn't need the rest. He enjoyed a cup himself before regretfully pouring the rest down the kitchen sink. He didn't like wasting anything, mainly because he grew up where you couldn't waste anything. This was all new to him; he'd never been in quite a high-tech city. The closest was when he'd traveled to Beijing with his father to trade a few things, and it had been a long and arduous journey. He sat on the couch, thinking over the offer that had been given to him. Occasionally, he'd glance at the invitation laid out on the table in front of him, as if checking it was still there. Fishing around in the envelope had produced the money that Mr. Makimoto had mentioned before for cab fare, and the only thing that he could think at the moment was: _what have I gotten myself into?_

Kai

Kai had departed the training room soon after annihilating the other boy in their match. There was no one there worth battling against, at least not to his knowledge. He had carefully scrutinized every face in that crowd, none of them looking like any sort of challenge. The only other option was to train by himself, but finding solitude was hard. When you've got a whole hoard of fan girls following you every step you take, it's hard to lose them. Taking alleyways hadn't helped things, it only made the girls more determined to find him when he finally showed up again. Kai sighed, why, why, why did Japan have to have such stupid girls? It was absolutely absurd what these girls did: they stalked him, they giggled over him, they had even tried _talking_ to him. He hadn't paid any attention to them, and for some reason that made them that much more annoying. Kai never really understood what girls were about even when they spoke the same language, in fact, because he grew up in an abbey he'd barely ever seen a girl. Distasteful things they were, flaunting their bodies in such a grotesque way. Their shirts were too short, and it seemed that the less material that went into making the piece of clothing, the more it cost. This made absolutely no sense to Kai, since the piece of clothing in question looked like it would fall apart within a few washes. Girl's clothing was absolutely not functional junk that was overpriced and distasteful. Kai despised the fact that almost every girl who followed him wore this kind of clothing. What was wrong with girl's brains that made them act in such a way? It was completely strange.

While contemplating girls and their distasteful trains of thought, Kai headed to his hotel room. It was one of the most expensive ones in the building, specially paid for by his grandfather. Oh, his dear sweet grandfather had sent him off to a foreign country with a translator he had no faith in. Kai was sure that his grandfather had selected the man because of the likeliness that he would leave. It was supposed to be a clever sort of punishment that rich people could only afford or something. Kai scoffed before retrieving his door card and swiping it through the reader. Well, he'd show him. Kai Hiwatari was not going to go down with his head in his hands. No, he'd survive just fine without a stinking translator by his side every waking moment of his life. Kai lounged in one of the leather armchairs overlooking the rest of the hotel's property. There was a pool, which was crowded past capacity given the recent weather. A small pathetic looking children's play gym was set to one side of a small litter filled gated grassy area. How wonderful. There was hustle and bustle below him, and Kai preferred to look down and watch rather than actually take part. Cars were coming and going constantly from the parking lot, and people came and went. It was almost hypnotic, and Kai would sometimes watch people go about their lives for hours on end. A gentle knock on the door brought him back to Earth, or rather, Tokyo.

Kai grudgingly got up from his chair and walked over to answer the door. It was funny, by now most fan girls were banging frantically on the door, or ringing the bell. Come to think of it, the knock was considerably more polite and reserved than that of any fan girl Kai had had stalk him home yet. What a surprise it was to open the door and find a young man standing smartly there, looking forward with purpose. "Hello, would you by any chance be Mr. Hiwatari?" the young man asked pleasantly after a few seconds of silence between the two. He was not more than a few inches taller than Kai, and couldn't have been more than thirty. Maybe early to late twenties at the most. And he spoke Russian. Kai was inwardly surprised to hear anything other than the screechy babble that he heard everyday following him. To hear Russian was like getting punched (though politely) in the gut. Not that he'd show his surprise though.

"Yes, I am Kai Hiwatari. What is your business here?" He wanted to keep things short and to the point, no beating around the bush. This man intrigued him in a way, he looked thoroughly Japanese, and yet he spoke immaculate Russian. It didn't stop him from trying to brush the man off as fast as possible.

"My name is Keiichiro Makimoto, I have been sent by Chairman Gogoro Daitenji to extend an invitation to you. He would like you to join and take captainship of his newest team." The man had sensed Kai's distaste for conversation, and had obviously switched gears from when they had met a few seconds ago. He quickly reached into his briefcase and pulled out an official looking envelope, which he handed to Kai. It was addressed to Mr. Kai Hiwatari, and was stamped with a seal. "I do hope to meet with you again Mr. Hiwatari, and I do hope that you consider this offer." With that, the man bowed and walked off.

Kai was left there standing and staring at the place the man used to be. He loosely held the envelope in one hand, and the other was still on the doorknob. Grunting, he simply walked back inside the room, closing the door behind him. He then settled into the same armchair and fiddled with the envelope in his hands. Staring at the Russian printed neatly on the front, he suddenly realized how alien it was here in Tokyo. They spoke a completely different sounding language, and their method of writing was absolutely downright strange! He glared at the seal for a few moments before ripping it open and pulling out a neatly folded piece of paper. Scanning it, he picked out that this man – Gogoro Daitenji – wanted him on the new team that he was building. Kai also gathered that Mr. Daitenji wanted him to take captainship of this team. He grimaced when he reached another part. It mentioned putting him on a team with the teens from other countries. To Kai, this meant that he would have to deal with translators all of the time, and most likely these ones would be the clingy sort. They'd follow you around just begging you to let them translate this or that. Kai hated those kinds of translators. But… it was the best way to get out of this place. Otherwise, he'd have to raise money on his own to fly back home, and then what? It wasn't like Voltaire was going to welcome him back with open arms. Kai figured that this offer was the best it was going to get, plus he'd be on a team with bladers who were almost half decent. Otherwise, who knows who he might end up with. He weighed the possibilities and mulled it over while staring out his large window. Things could certainly be taking a turn…

Max

Max stumbled along, only half paying attention to where he was going. He'd met with Rei – an encounter he was sure most girls would die for – and they had had as much of a conversation as was possible in hand gestures and sounds. The Chinese teen seemed like a nice guy, and Max found himself thinking that he wouldn't mind getting put on a team with him. Rei-Kon was pleasant, well mannered, polite and all around nice guy. His mom had been raving about this kid for ages once she had gathered information on him. _My mom, the stalker…_ For once, he was actually glad that she'd gone to all the trouble of finding out about the contestants, it gave him a leg up on the competition. It also let him know a little bit more about people, and who was a likely candidate for a friend. Rei was definitely one of those candidates. Of course, for about a billion other people here in Tokyo, he was also their choice person to meet. Pretty boys always came first, next to the perverted hot ones, or just the plain hot ones. Or the 'I won't talk to you because I'm too cool' hot guys. The happy-go-lucky guys didn't ever really hit the charts at all for desirable-ness. Max didn't mind, it gave everyone one less reason to pester him. He already stuck out like a sore thumb among everyone here, so adding one more thing wouldn't be helping any. It would only make it easier to find him, which sounded sort of scary when he thought about it. Finally recognizing a landmark as one of those buildings that were a mile or something away from his destination, Max seized the opportunity that hailing a taxi offered. He quickly pulled out a map and pointed to where he wanted to go. The cabbie simply rolled his eyes and nodded that he understood, muttering something about "Baka gaijin…" under his breath. Once they were arrived, Max pulled out the amount needed as fare, and tried to smile as glowingly as Rei had. No effect what-so-ever appeared to take place. _Okay, so the smile thing doesn't work for me… I'll just find my own thing! _

Taking the stairs up to the ninth floor proved to be a good idea, he avoided a lot of stares, he got a little exercise, and he had time to think. People here didn't seem to like him much, and it didn't help he didn't know what they were saying. In fact, it only made it worse. People were probably thinking that he was an ignorant person who didn't like Japanese or something. His mom was lucky, she had hired herself a translator. Unfortunately, she needed her all of the time, and so Max was left with no one. She had promised that she'd hire someone once they'd gotten to Japan, but no one had been produced, so Max had simply assumed that there was never going to be any translator. It was fine by him, if his mom either couldn't be bothered to find him a translator or if she couldn't afford to hire another one, that was fine by him. At least, he tried to will himself to think that. Once his password had been accepted at the door he jumped in and kicked off his shoes. Mom wouldn't be home for a little while, she had gone to a business meeting and would be back late. By late, she probably meant "way past your bedtime, you're not going to see me come in". His father wasn't able to come and visit often, the shop had picked up business since the qualifiers had started. People wanted more than ever to own a Beyblade, and they all turned to Mr. Mizuhara. Max slouched into a reclining chair and switched on the television. There weren't actually many channels available without him having to pay, so he was stuck watching a Japanese version of Arthur which he'd already seen in English. Not that he'd been watching it lately, just that he remembered a little bit of it. He switched the volume to mute when he thought he'd heard a knock on the door. _I haven't ordered room service, my dad knows the password so he'd have let himself in, and my mom's the same. The only other thing I could think of is that perhaps my mom's translator went psycho and deserted her in the middle of the meeting. Which I highly doubt… But you can never be too sure._ He turned around and strained his ears again. Yup, there was definitely someone knocking on the door. Politely, but insistently. Max got up and walked over to the door before opening it the slightest crack.

"Who're you?" was his first question, but he realized that it was in vain when the person he saw looked thoroughly Japanese, and looked like some sort of businessman. "Look, I know you don't understand me, but if you're looking for my mom, then she's not here. She's in a meeting, so just go away and come back tomorrow or something okay?" he made shooing motions before turning to close the door. He was tired and not in a very good mood, which was completely strange for him.

"My name is Keiichiro Makimoto, and no, I'm not looking for your mother. The person I'm looking for could possibly be you. Are you by any chance Mr. Max Mizuhara?" Max froze as soon as he heard the first words 'My name is' in English. Crazy, this person spoke English? Since when did these things happen? And it was immaculate, perfect, un-accented English too. Did that sound cheesy? Well, it was a complete surprise to him.

"I… I… I…" Max stuttered for a moment before grasping the situation. "Ya, my name is Max. Why are you looking for me?" _and how do you know which hotel I'm in, and how do you know which room, and, come to think of it, my name? Oh, and I'd like you to tell me right now how you speak English but you look Japanese. How? Since when did this world get so confusing?_ Max stood there for a moment taking in this man. Completely strange, it was so weird hearing English coming from this guy who looked like he'd be one of those business people who'd just scoff and turn away. Okay, so his vibes were completely different, but his appearance was like a younger version of those stereotypical Japanese bosses you always see on movies. Except he was less creased and not as oily looking, and just better looking in general. In fact, Max sort of regretted making that comparison as soon as he'd thought it. It wasn't fair to be judging people like that, though Japanese people did it all the time with him.

"I've been sent with an invitation by Chairman Gogoro Daitenji." Here he smiled before adding, "I know you've probably got a million questions to as me, that's just the way it works." Max suddenly remembered his manners and opened the door fully.

"Would you like to come in? I sort of haven't got anything to do right now, and I'd like someone to talk to. If you haven't got time, that's okay, but I'd like to learn a little bit more about what Mr. Daitenji's inviting me to." Max gestured indoors. He'd recognized Gogoro Daitenji's name – his mother had been going on for ages about what a great man he was – and as a result decided to trust this man. If it was the wrong decision… well… Max simply refused to think about it. The guy seemed okay, like the kind of guy Rei was. Or maybe not as good, but close as a carbon copy could get. In any case, Max lead him inside and sat him down so that he could face the man.

"So first off, how do you know English?" Max went straight to what was most important to him, and that was knowing how this guy knew English.

"I'm a translator, it's my job" he said, smiling slightly. "I translate things for Mr. Daitenji, and knowing a lot of languages comes in handy when you need to translate for someone who has a lot of other language correspondents." Here he paused and looked over at the muted television, and raised an eyebrow. "Arthur?" he asked simply, watching as Pal jumped on top of the aardvark, much to said aardvark's dismay. Max blushed a deep red and quickly shut the television off.

"It's just about the only channel we get that we don't have to pay for. Otherwise it's like twenty bucks per show or something like that" he replied, looking down at the floor. Keiichiro nodded before continuing.

"Sorry about that. Anyway, I was sent by Gogoro Daitenji, so I'm not a stalker. Just in case you were thinking that" he grinned and looked over at the blond boy. Max looked up and started laughing.

"Well, no one wants to stalk me, just in case you were thinking that" he answered, smiling slightly.

"You can never be too sure these days… Stalkers are people who follow you without your knowledge." Keiichiro pointed this out before continuing. "Would you like to read your invitation?"

"Sure?" Max's answer was sort of unsure, mostly because he worried it was in some sort of bizarre other language he didn't know. Maybe it was Japanese or something. But when the envelope was handed to him, it was neatly printed in English, and he relaxed. He carefully picked away at the seal before unfolding the paper inside hesitantly. Carefully reading the invitation, he couldn't believe that he was wanted on a Japanese team. "Crazy" that was just about all he could say by the time he'd finished. "So, you want me on a team with like… lessee here… Four different languages? Wow." Keiichiro shrugged before responding.

"As long as you are all exceptional bladers – which you are – then you already have something in common. You can always decline of course." He said this offhandedly. "The key to making mixed cultural places work is to focus on what you have in common, and not what you have different. It's been done, Canada for example has many people who barely speak English and yet they manage to find a way to connect with others." He nodded his head at Max. "Of course, you live right across the boarder from Canada, so you'd know all of this, right?" Max sort of blushed a little. All he really knew was that Canada didn't have a very good army, and all of the stereotypical stuff that went around. He'd never really found Canada that interesting at all, so he hadn't paid much attention to what was going on up north. Keiichiro laughed. "I take that as a no" he said simply. "Anyway, think over the offer, and you can always just meet the gang before deciding. If you'd like to do that, just come to the meeting and make your final decision after." With that, he stood up and started walking to the door.

"Hang on, one last question" Max stopped the man in his tracks. Keiichiro politely turned around and looked over at the blond. "You're a translator, right? So you'd know who's available right? Is there anyone good out there?" he just had to ask that question, he didn't want to get stuck with a horrible translator after all!

"Mr. Daitenji is a good judge of character, he's chosen translators for other people and they've all been good people. Don't worry, he won't stick you with someone who can't do their job, or who isn't a nice person socially." He smiled before saying "unfortunately, I can't tell you who's available. There are a lot of translators here in Japan, and I'm not quite sure which ones are planning on coming or not. As well, I heard from Mr. Daitenji that there are foreign translators coming in from other countries because of this recent boom in foreign language problems. He isn't even 100 sure who's coming or not coming. It all depends. Translators are in high demand right now, so if they get an offered job that's for sure, they'll take it." He paused halfway out the door. "Whoever you choose, I'm sure that they'll be a good person. I hope to see you again Mr. Mizuhara, it's been a pleasure." The door closed with a smart click, and the footsteps faded away down the hall.

Max was left sitting on the couch thinking over the offer. It was probably the best way to get his hands on a translator – something he desperately needed – and plus, the letter had said that if everyone accepted, he'd be on the same team as Rei! This closed the subject, Max was going to that meeting.

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Finished? I tried to move it along, I know it's really repetitive. Heh. Anyway, I guess we all know their decisions eh? Next chapter, the rest of my OCs are coming, so watch out! If they're too perfect or anything, just tell me. I don't want that, I want them to be as normal as possible. If you could tell me what you think of Keiichiro, that'd be great. Personally, I think he is a little bit on the perfect side... But for some reason that's how I wrote it. I'm just too lazy to change it now, but if enough people think he's perfect, I'll try and rewrite it or something. 'Till the next update!


	5. Translator Mayhem!

Yay! Fifth chapter! This makes me very happy, I LOVE the number five. I also love Canada, because I happen to be proudly Canadian. That's why most of my OCs are from Canada, because I really don't know much about other places. I have to do research or something about other countries! Yes, that's what I'll do. Anwayz,a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who bothered to reply, and who reads this drivel I call a fan-fic. All of your comments are so nice, thank you for reading!

This is the dreaded chapter where my OCs come at full force. There should be five of them, and a few that are mentioned indirectly. If any of them appear to be too perfect, please don't hesitate to tell me! I don't want that, my OCs are supposed to be normal people!

_'italics' _thought (of a character)

Disclaimer: To make things simple, I do not own anything except this idea, the typing that went into it, and my OCs. The characters you don't recognize are mine, and are not to be used in any stories except for mine.

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Takao

Takao woke with a start, which could be credited to his Ojii-san brutally beating him awake. Well, perhaps not brutally, but Takao had a feeling whatever he did would leave a mark. "What was THAT for?" he practically blew up at his Ojii-san, rubbing the back of his head gingerly.

"Today's your big day little man, are you going or what?" it took Takao a few moments to register what Ojii-san was talking about before turning around to look properly at him.

"No DUH I'm going to that meeting, so you going to find me a ride or what?" Maybe being rude to the one person who could get him where he wanted wasn't a good idea… Takao only realized this after the statement left his mouth. _Hehe… Oops… _His Ojii-san wasn't looking all too pleased with him at this moment, and Takao was afraid that he'd make him train for the whole day or something like that. Which would mean that Takao would then not be able to attend the meeting, which would mean that he couldn't be part of the team, which would dash any hopes he'd have of getting into the Asian Tournament. Bummer. As Takao thought this over, his Ojii-san was looking disapprovingly at his grandson.

"Ever heard of 'respect for your elders'? And after I threw you that surprise party for your thirteenth birthday even when you'd forgotten it yourself! The nerve!" Ojii-san made a face before continuing. "I _had_ arranged for Kyouju-san's mother to give all of us a ride to the Beyblade Corp. office building, however… if this is the thanks I get, then I'm not so sure. It can always be cancelled of course, I'm sure that she will understand." Ojii-san grinned inwardly; torturing his grandson was always so fun! He watched as worry crossed the navy-haired teen's face, quickly to be replaced by a sad puppy-dog eyed look.

"Please Ojii-san! Oh pwease? Pwease oh pwease oh pwease? Ojii-san! You know how much this means to me!" Ojii-san sighed, Takao could be so immature sometimes! Takao's eyes became even more pleading, and he gave a quick glance at his alarm clock to see how long he'd have to convince his Ojii-san not to cancel the ride. "Whhaatt? It's three thirty! You crazy old man, I'm going to be SO LATE!" Takao jumped out of bed and rushed to the kitchen, grabbing as much 'breakfast' as he could while running his hands through his hair to try and make it half-decently flat. No such luck, but he was in no place to complain. Grabbing his red jacket and stuffing on his cap, he ran out the front door and started down the road. Ojii-san sighed before poking his head out the door and calling after him.

"Hey, unless you plan on running all the way downtown, I suggest you wait until Kyouju-san and his mother arrive with the car. They should be here any minute now, so hang onto your hat and reign in your horses!" This stopped Takao in his tracks, and he looked around embarrassed before heading back inside. Waiting would be way too hard!

As promised, Kyouju and his mother showed up within about five minutes, which felt like the longest time Takao had ever spent waiting in his entire life. Through all of that time, he fidgeted on the step he had taken to sitting on to keep a look out. He had munched through a good loaf of bread and numerous bowls of rice (supplied courtesy of his Ojii-san) waiting in anticipation of their arrival. When they had finally pulled up, he had rushed over and wrenched open the door, almost jumping on top of his best friend in his excitement. Even while they were driving, Takao wiggled in his seat and anxiously looked between the clock on the dashboard and the window. Kyouju laughed nervously as he watched his best friend, he'd never seen him quite so wound up except for before that battle with that Russian guy. "Excited?" he asked needlessly. Takao nodded his head vigorously.

"Man, if you could only understand how much I'm looking forward to this! This has to be the most exciting moment in my entire life! To think, I'll be on a team that's going to the Asian tournament! Hey, man, I'll ask if you can come along too, that'd be so cool. You probably have so much important information that could help us so much if you came along!" Takao's eyes were bright, and he had completely forgotten about his Ojii-san waking him up way too late. Right now all that mattered was getting to that office building!

"I'm not entirely sure if that'd be a good idea Takao-san, Kyouju-kun has a lot of studying to do. Perhaps you could e-mail each other occasionally instead?" This was Kyouju's mother; she didn't really like the idea of her son going around the world when he had school obligations.

"Whatever, hey look! Isn't that it there?" Takao was pointing excitedly out the window at the large office building to his right. It had a large screen on the front, showing clips of the qualifiers. The one that was currently playing was part of Takao's battle against Rei. Takao winced as he watched his blade get annihilated once again by the power of the white tiger. It wasn't a memory he cared to repeat anytime soon, and to think he might be on the same team as that guy! Next to the screen was a large picture of a blade in motion, and the words 'Beyblade Corp.' written in bold letters over top of it. Once Kyouju's mother had parked the car on the opposite side of the road, Takao jumped out and ran right across the street, causing many angry shouts and honks in his general direction. The rest of them were just left to wait until traffic calmed down enough for them to inch their way across.

By the time that Takao had entered the foyer, he had noticed that there was another person following behind him. Curious, he turned around to find himself face-to-face with the Chinese White Tiger, the one from the qualifiers. The usually confident looking teen was looking nervously at Takao, like he didn't know what to do. Grinning, Takao walked over and offered him a hand. "Hey man, my name's Takao, remember from the tournament? Anyway, it's so cool we're going to be on the same team, hey, you looking for Gogoro Daitenji's office too?" Takao was simply greeted by a confused smile that made him realize the other teen hadn't understood a word that had left his mouth. _Drat, this sucks…_ A security guard quickly walked over to them and looked them over.

"Who are you?" he asked simply, giving Rei the once over and Takao a hard look. "I had no idea that Beyblade Corp. employed teenagers, and to the best of my knowledge Chinese people didn't live in Tokyo." He jabbed a finger at Rei's clothing, which just happened to be his traditional garb. Rei recoiled a little bit at the man's harsh tone, and Takao went red with anger.

"Man, don't dis him, that's not cool. Plus, we're here to meet with Gogoro Daitenji, it's about the team stuff." Takao was losing patience with this guard. "My name is Kinomiyou Takao, and this is the Chinese kid from the tournament, I think his name's Rei. You ought to let us through, we have a meeting at four and it's already three fifty-eight." He puffed out his chest and started walking forward, only to be stopped by the guard.

"Yeah, you wish you were at that meeting don't you?" the guard sneered before turning to kick them out.

Normal

"Mamoru-san, they're with me." Keiichiro had just exited the elevator and was looking sternly at the guard refusing the two boys entry. "They will be late for their meeting with Daitenji-san, I do believe it would be in your best interest to let them through. Should you meet a boy named Kyouju and his mother, as well as this charming young man's grandfather" here he motioned at Takao "you should let them through immediately and give them directions to the meeting room. You know where it is." The guard recoiled slightly at this chastisement before straightening out and giving Keiichiro a salute.

"Yes sir! Will do sir!"

"Very well" Keiichiro looked welcomingly at Takao and Rei before motioning for them to follow him. "It's okay now, the guard knows why you're here" he nodded reassuringly at Rei while saying this. The two teens quickly followed him into the elevator before the guard had a chance to change his mind.

"What was that about?" Rei asked, looking over at Keiichiro, worry written all over his features. "Have I done something wrong? Why was that man angry with us?"

"He isn't quite in the best of moods, what with people coming and going, and new people he had no idea were coming arriving every few hours. Lately he's been on edge, it has nothing to do with you personally." Rei let out a sigh of relief, before turning to face Takao.

"Were you sticking up for me?" he asked, making Takao's features go into confusion. Keiichiro quickly translated for him, and the Japanese teen nodded. Rei gave him a glowing smile, and Takao instantly felt warm and fuzzy on the inside. "Thank you."

The fourth floor was nothing special really, just a long hall with non-descript doors, all polished oak. There were a few hanging baskets here and there, along with planters filled with colourful flowers and green stalks. It was pleasantly quiet, with the occasional hushed voice coming from behind a door, or the shuffle of papers. The steady tap of a keyboard sounded through the hall, as someone typed up the latest statistics from the qualifiers. Keiichiro quickly lead the two teens down the end of the hallway, where the door was marked with the number '202' in polished bronze letters. It was opened before he even reached for the doorknob.

"Ah, Makimoto-san, I was wondering if you'd picked up our two little up-and-coming bladers from the wrath of my over protective guard. I was just going to check on you, but it seems you've done a good job of it yourself." They were greeted by the warm smile of Gogoro Daitenji, as he ushered them in to his office. Keiichiro was the last to enter, clicking the door shut behind him. "Now now, I do believe that introductions are to be made now that everyone's here!" Daitenji-san clapped his hands together with the glee of a three year old shining in his eyes as he sat down in his comfortable chair behind his desk. "Makimoto-san, if you please!" Keiichiro nodded his head and quickly translated to everyone. "Now, why don't we start with you young man?" Daitenji-san motioned to Max, who looked a little bit taken aback. "Just tell us your name, where you were born, where you come from, and anything else you wish! Come now, don't be shy."

"Uh… Hey, my name's Max Mizuhara, and I was born in New York, which is in the United States of America. I came here from Boston because my crazy mom wanted to check out the competition here in Japan, so that's how I ended up in the qualifiers. Hmm… My favourite thing to do is Beyblade, and I also enjoy playing video games or any other sort of strategy game. Risk is good; I can win against pretty much anyone at that game. That's… about it. I'm not that interesting." He shrugged his shoulders and scratched the back of his head while Keiichiro translated to everyone. Next up was Rei.

"My name is Kon-Rei, and I come from a mountain village near Hong-Kong, in China. My clan is called the White Tigers, thus explains my bit beast. I was born and raised in my village, and have occasionally visited Hong-Kong and Beijing. This is my opportunity to see more of the world that I would be able to on my own. It is very exciting to think that I will be able to tour the world doing what I enjoy best, Beyblading!" he grinned at the entire room. "I do believe that this will be quite the experience!"

"Yeah" Takao nodded his head in agreement before starting his introduction. "Hi! My name's Kinomiyou Takao, and I was born here in Japan, in Tokyo. Anyway, Beyblading is what I do best, and this team's going to be the best ever!" He gave a lopsided grin before continuing. "After seeing everyone blade, this is going to be one awesome tournament!" Takao looked expectantly at the Russian teen, wanting to hear his introduction. Kai was leaning against the far wall of the office, and only looked up once Takao was right up in his face.

"Come on man, introduce yourself!" Takao's message was lost to deaf ears as Kai gave him a harsh glare. However, Takao didn't give up, and eventually pulled a somewhat half-decent response out of the Russian teen.

"My name is Kai Hiwatari, I was born and raised in Moscow, Russia." Well, that was that. At least they knew his name now.

Daitenji-san talked for a while about how he knew asking them to join a team with so many languages was a very demanding thought indeed. He paused every now and then to let Keiichiro translate to everyone, before continuing on. Halfway through his speech, Kyouju and Takao's Ojii-san walked through the door, making more introductions necessary. After that little interruption, Daitenji-san concluded his speech, asked if anyone had any questions, and invited the first translator candidate in.

Keiichiro was quickly put in charge of going through all of the candidates. He had them introduce themselves to everyone, and would politely give them a few tips on their translations before sending them out to wait in the room next to Daitenji-san's office. There were a few candidates who had misread and had thought they would be translating for Gogoro Daitenji, others were offended to be translating for teenagers. These people were quickly and politely ushered out of the building, as they had no desire to translate at all for the four teenaged boys. There were crazed fan-girls who had snuck in somehow claiming that they were translators, others just wanted to meet the team. These people were also politely sent out, not to return. There were translators who could barely manage English, let alone any other language they would need to have if this team went on tour. People came from all over, they had translators from Korea, Russia, Germany, America, and a few from China as well. It was overwhelming really. By the end of two hours and thirty applicants, Keiichiro had found two likely candidates for good translators. There was a man in his late thirties who was excellent at Japanese and Mandarin, but needed some brushing up on his Russian. He also couldn't speak French, which was one of the desired languages since the team would be on a tour in Europe. The other was a woman who was in her early thirties, she was friendly and could translate well enough in all the desired languages. However, she had a tendency to mispronounce things, and some of the languages she spoke had a slight accent to them that made them a little hard to understand. Still, those two were probably the best it was going to get. Keiichiro sighed, looking at his clipboard before calling in one of the last applicants. "Amai, Trent." He read off into the wall microphone, and the door opened revealing not one, but four young teenagers accompanied by man.

"Are you sure that you've got the right place?" Keiichiro asked them, looking over the four teenagers curiously. Collectively, they looked no older than fourteen, and all of them looked tired. There was a blond, two brunettes, and a bluenette, and all but one of them was male. The man behind them nodded his head.

"This is the Beyblade Corp. building, fourth floor, room 202, am I correct?" he asked, looking around the room. "These four are applied to audition for the role of translator to this team." He motioned to the four teenagers who had walked in with him. "My name is Brown Wyatt, and I'm the teacher in charge of the Japanese class over at Daiji Junior High, in Canada." So that was why the teens all looked so tired, they were jet-lagged! The blond looked like he was about to fall over in exhaustion, his eyes were half closed, and he was slouching over in an attempt to stay standing. The bluenette boy was leaning heavily on the brunette next to him, and the brunette had a half-conscious look about him, though he was probably the most awake out of all of them. The other brunette was the girl, and she looked like she was napping standing up. All in all, they were a thoroughly bedraggled group. "… We just got in the airport a few minutes ago; we had just enough time to get their belongings into the hotel before rushing over here. It's a thirteen hour difference between here and Canada, and we left in the early afternoon over there. It'd be about midnight right now, or very early in the morning anyway." He explained this while giving the teens a very harsh look. "They napped a little bit on the plane, but it'll take them a while to get used to time over here."

"That's all very well, but can they translate?" Keiichiro looked over them critically. Right now, they didn't look like much. Perhaps that was because they were practically asleep, but even so.

"Sure they can, they are top of their class at Daiji in their respective languages. They were all hand-picked by their teachers to come here." Wyatt looked offended at Keiichiro. "You may as well test them to see if they meet your expectations." Keiichiro nodded his head wearily before starting the interview process.

"Good afternoon, my name is Makimoto Keiichiro and I will be the translator testing you. Should you pass this examination, you may be asked to translate for this team here." He motioned to the four teenaged boys in front of him. "May I start with you?" Keiichiro motioned to the blond boy. He jumped, as if someone had pinched him, and his eyes opened fully. As his eyes focused properly on Keiichiro, most of the room stared a little bit. The American kid's eyes were a more sky blue colour, clear like a bright day, but this kid's eyes were a bright electric blue. Since Keiichiro had motioned to him first, the blond boy stood up taller and tried to look more awake. He wasn't much taller than Takao, with hair that was as blond as Max's, though not quite as unruly. His hair was neatly swept off to the side, and started out short at the top but got longer once it reached almost to his chin. He smiled a little bit nervously before asking Keiichiro how he should introduce himself and in what language. "I would like you to state your name, how old you are, where you were born and where you come from. If you would like to add anything else, that will be fine. In fact, the more you tell us about yourself, the better. If you could start in Mandarin that would be excellent." Keiichiro told the boy this before waiting patiently. "Whenever you're ready is fine."

"Okay then… Hey, my name is Armon Nathaniel. If you can understand me, wave a hand" he said this jokingly, and caught Rei's movement out of the corner of his eye. Shifting to face him properly, Nathaniel smiled a little nervously at Rei and pulled at the hem of his t-shirt. "Great, uhm, ya, my name is Armon Nathaniel and I'm fourteen years old, in grade eight at Daiji Junior High. You can shorten my name however you want; I know it's really long. Anyway, I was born in Devon, England and moved to Canada when I was ten. If you hear my accent, it's English, sorry about that. I'm not exactly fantastic at Mandarin; in fact it's my weakest language. Since I come from England, obviously my strongest language is English. I can also speak Quebec French, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, German, Italian, and a little bit of Cantonese, Italian, Dutch, and Acadian French. I'm not exactly great at any sort of Asian language, I'm more of a European language guy." He looked embarrassed at the floor, then up at Keiichiro for the criticism he was sure was coming.

"That was okay, you should watch that accent though, at some points it took over." Keiichiro gave Nathaniel a nod. "You may introduce yourself to the rest of them. Japanese next please, then Russian, and if you wish you may introduce yourself in English as well, though I obviously have no need to test you there." Nathaniel continued to introduce himself to everyone else, stumbling a little over the Japanese words. When Keiichiro pointed this out, Nat nodded his head and said "that's why we're a team." By 'we' he meant the rest of the teenagers with him. The next to be tested was the brunette.

The brunette boy had a few distinct Asian characteristics, though they were a little bit diluted, and so over all he looked a little bit mixed. He had hazel eyes, which most of the people there had never seen. His hair was a dark chestnut colour, and it was almost the same length as Nat's, though a little bit shorter, and he had bangs that fell out the front of the navy ball cap he was wearing backwards. When he stood up properly to face Rei (he had been asked to start in Mandarin) he looked at least a few inches taller than Nathan.

"My name's Amai Trent, and I'm the same age as Nat. We go the same school, and we're in the same grade. I was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I'm practically the opposite of Nat there" he gestured at Nathaniel "in that I specialize in Asian Languages. My strongest language other than English is Mandarin, then Korean and Japanese. I don't speak a lot of Quebec or Acadian French. Cantonese isn't my most favourite language, but I do well enough in it. I can speak Russian at least half-decently, and I don't speak Spanish at all. I can speak a little bit of German, but not a lot." Trent appeared to be fighting off the effects of jet lag better than the rest of them. As soon as he had finished introducing himself, Nat had basically almost fallen asleep again, and the bluenette was still leaning heavily for support on Trent, while the girl was swaying slightly. Keiichiro felt a little bit sorry for the teens, they had been dragged almost halfway across the world for a job that they might not even get. He gave Trent a few pointers on Russian, as the rest of his performance had been actually very good. He then moved on the to bluenette who looked like he'd been drugged. Trent gave the shorter boy a few gentle nudges on the shoulder, to which the boy had mumbled "not now mom… I'm soooo tired…."

"Come on, you have to get up now Terry." Trent looked apologetically at the shorter teen as he nudged him right awake. Rei looked over the group of them and wondered what it was like to travel halfway across the world, as Takao wondered if all Canadians were like this. Max was simply surprised to see that Canadians weren't that much different that Americans, from what he'd seen so far anyway. He felt for the teens, because he remembered arriving in Tokyo as well. At least his mom had let him sleep at his dad's though; these kids had practically been pulled right from the airport into the interview. Once the bluenette was sufficiently awake, he started introducing himself in Japanese.

The bluenette boy (Trent had called him 'Terry') was the shortest male there. He had royal blue hair that fanned out around his face because of a navy headband. Max found himself thinking his hair was almost like Rei's, except royal blue and minus the ponytail. His eyes weren't anything special like the rest of his travel partners, just plain old brown.

"Mmm… Okay, my name is Caldwell Terry, but I think that Trent was talking to me or something… so you'd know it. Uhmm… we're all the same age, so I don't need to tell you. I was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and my strongest language other than English is German. I'm more for European languages like Nat is; I speak Russian second best next to German. The languages I speak are the same as Nat, 'cept that I'm better at Acadian French than Quebec French. That's… about it." He fell right back to sleep, leaning on Trent after repeating that to the rest of them.

Keiichiro didn't even bother to criticize the boy; he had done well enough so he let the bluenette sleep. The next to be awoken was the girl. She was short and thin, and her hair was mousy. It fell raggedly over the left side of her face, and the one eye they could see was normal brown. Her name was Tsumi Rebecca, and she was born in Kyoto, Japan. She really didn't do a good job at all when it came to Russian, and her Mandarin was barely understandable. Rei only made out her name and her age before he gave up trying to understand the jumble of words that was directed at him. Wyatt looked disapproved at her, before sending her out. She returned with another boy at her side. He was definitely Asian, this one, and he looked a little bit more conscious than the rest of them. Maybe it was because he got more time to rest. Still, he looked like he had just rolled out of bed. He began introducing himself in Japanese.

"My name is Hazukashii Kenji, and I'm the same age as the rest of us applying here with me. Hmm… We come from the same place, same school, same grade. I was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and… I speak the same languages as Trent does. We're just about the same, except I don't do as well in European languages than he does." The boy nodded his head and continued to introduce himself to everyone else. Truthfully, Gogoro Daitenji was fairly pleased with these teenagers. Not only would his team have people the same age with them, but they were actually fairly competent translators from what Keiichiro was saying.

"How much would you charge if I were to hire all four of them?" Daitenji-san asked this out of curiosity.

"If you were to hire all four of them it would cost the same as hiring two translators, minimum pay, check payable to Daiji Junior High. However, I suggest that you hire two at the most, and ones that will balance each other out." Wyatt looked over the teens before adding. "I only brought five so you could choose; three Asian specialists and two European specialists. I suggest only one of each though." He nodded his head knowingly. "I don't think Rebecca is quite a good choice, I will send her back to the waiting room unless you have any objections." None arose, so Rebecca was quickly sent out.

"May I speak to you privately Brown-san? I would like to know more about what you suggest. It will also let the boys get to know each other better. Once I get back, we can make our final decision." Daitenji-san stood up from his chair and motioned out the door, letting Wyatt walk out first. The door was closed smartly, and it left the nine teenage boys, Keiichiro, and Takao's Ojii-san by themselves.

"So… If you guys are going to be on a team, you should make up a name" Keiichiro suggested, and the rest of the boys translated in to different languages.

"How about The Team With Way Too Many Language Problems?" Takao suggested, earning an exasperated look from Max.

"First off Takao, that's _way_ too long to be decent, second of all, it just doesn't have a good ring to it, you know?" Rei nodded his head in agreement with Max.

"Mmm… Team Mix and Match?" Terry was still half asleep when he suggested that.

"No… Still doesn't have a good ring to it." Rei thought for a moment after saying that. "Team Fury?"

"Naw, I don't know about that one." Max scratched the back of his head, thinking hard.

"Team Typhoon?"

"Don't know about that one either."

Ideas were bounced around, and thrown out. They completely gave up on trying to include Kai after he just grunted and glared at them every time they made an attempt. Every now and then Takao would go on about how "The team captain should have his say in what the name of the team should be! What's the use in even having a team captain if he isn't going to _do_ anything!" to which Kai would simply glare at him.

"He's just creepy" Max whispered to Takao, and the Japanese teen quickly agreed once he understood what had been said.

"This is hard, once you name your team, that's the name everyone's going to know it by!" Kyouju piped up after staying silent for a while. He was shy by nature, so having so many people around him was a little overwhelming. The fact he didn't know most of what they were saying didn't help, but the translators tried their best. Everyone (except Kai of course) nodded their heads in agreement with the brunette boy.

"Hey! I know, what about the Bladebreakers!" Takao's face lit up as soon as he thought of the name. "I think it's perfect! I mean, I think we can live up to that name pretty well. Rei completely annihilated my blade in the qualifiers, and Kai made a whole lot of blades into almost dust. It's perfect!" Nods of approval went around the room.

"That is one spiffy name there, I think it's great" Ojii-san nodded his head, crossing his arms and looking relaxed.

"I think the vote is unanimous, the team name is the Bladebreakers!" Max jumped up and down grinning to himself, and even the jet-lagged translators managed a smile.

"Awesome, that's great!"

"Yeah, Watch out for us!"

They laughed as they talked among themselves about Beyblade, and their strategies. Even Kyouju began to feel somewhat relaxed around the rest of them, and gradually began to talk more about statistics and strategy. Max and Takao became fast friends, while Rei had a good talk with them as well. They had almost completely forgotten that they were waiting for a final verdict from Daitenji-san as to which translators were staying, and which were going. It was quickly brought back to their attention as Wyatt walked through the door followed by Daitenji-san. Immediately the air became a little bit tense between the translators, as they waited to hear if any of them were at all getting hired, and if so, who was getting shipped back home.

"It is a very hard decision to make, unfortunately" Daitenji-san shook his head. "I was just wondering if the boys could tell me who they thought would be a better translator." Unease passed over many of the boy's faces as they looked at each other. They hadn't really thought about that.

"My personal suggestion is probably Trent and Terry, or Terry and Kenji. Mainly to keep that balance between Asian and European specialists" Wyatt turned to look at the boys to see their reaction. "Nathaniel has an English accent that can get in the way sometimes, but if you don't mind that he can be a fairly decent translator."

"Yes, I agree that Nathaniel's accent can get in the way sometimes. Terry and Trent are my favourites right now." Keiichiro was looking over the teens critically, and they all tried to stand a little straighter under the pressure of his gaze.

"I think they all do a pretty good job" Max piped up, looking around at everyone as what they were saying was translated. The rest of the team nodded. "I mean, they're all really friendly and everything, and I think that everyone understands them just fine." Again nods from everyone on the team.

"This is quite a situation indeed. I think we can agree that Nathaniel is not an option though, am I correct?" Daitenji-san looked around at the adults of the room, who nodded somewhat reluctantly. Nathaniel slumped over sadly, before leaving the room.

There was a debate before it was decided that Kenji was not as good a translator as Trent was. They were left with Terry and Trent. Wyatt soon left with the rejects (A/N: mean I know) for the hotel they were set up in. It was agreed that everyone would take up residence in Takao's house, as he had lots of room and his Ojii-san didn't mind. Phone calls were made (at least in Max's case) to make sure that it was okay, and to cancel reservations in hotels and inns (in Kai's and Rei's cases). Rei would still occasionally go to his job as a waiter, though not as often since he no longer needed to worry about money because Beyblade Corp. would pay for most things.

Kai smirked, once his dear old grandfather found out that he'd been appointed team captain of a team that Beyblade Corp. was sponsoring, he was sure to go ballistic. Another thing that could contribute to that temper tantrum was the fact that now he had translators who would not desert him, not that he needed them. Max was simply glad that he didn't need to worry about not understanding most things, and that he could now properly communicate with most people. It was a huge weight off his shoulders to know that he could now know where he was going and what people were saying to him. It was also pretty cool that they translators weren't old fogies, and that they were pretty much the same age. He could also find out what the media was saying about him and Rei and Kai! For Rei, he was just as glad that he knew what was being said now, and he was also thankful for the fact he was now sponsored. He didn't have to worry about money as much anymore, because he had always been worried that he would not be able to pay the inn rent. Life seemed to be getting better. All of them hitched a ride on the bus that was headed out, and Max noticed that it was now getting dark. The meeting had lasted around three hours! None of them really believed this at all until they looked at a watch again. Sure hadn't felt that long.

As soon as they got in the door, Takao's Ojii-san went right to setting up enough futons for all of them, and Rei asked Takao where the kitchen was so he could cook dinner. "It's the least I can do" was all he said, as soon as Takao had shown him where everything was. He sent Takao out even though Takao had offered to help, and about an hour later delicious smells arose from the kitchen. When it was all finished, Rei brought it all out and set the table by himself, calling everyone to come eat. The food was as good as it smelled, and Takao practically inhaled everything before anybody even got to touch it. Rei quickly whipped up more, luckily this time other people got to eat their share. Everyone thanked him profusely before getting ready for bed.

It was quite the adventure, with six young men and one washroom. Terry was allowed to take his shower first, in attempts to try and get him ready for bed as fast as possible. The poor kid looked like he'd been drugged, and he was constantly leaning on Trent for support. As soon as he'd finished, a brawl between Takao and Max broke out to see who'd be able to use the washroom next. Max won that one, leaving Takao to sulk and Rei to laugh at the folly happening. Kai had disappeared, probably off to some unknown alleyway for some unknown reason. Whatever, the rest of the team decided that what Kai did was his business, so they didn't bother to search for him. Plus, they wouldn't know where to start. These combined into one big excuse to not go out looking for him. They figured that since he'd cancelled his hotel reservation, unless he wanted to sleep on the streets, he'd come back at some point. The teens decided to wait up for him since they really had nothing better to do. Takao rushed into the washroom as soon as Max left, not allowing Rei any time to pounce. This left Rei and Trent to decide amongst themselves who could use the washroom next. Rei reasoned that Trent was probably tired after suffering jet lag and changing into a time zone thirteen hours different, while Trent reasoned that since he was getting employed, his employer should go first. There was a heated debate, and Rei finally won out, letting Trent into the washroom next. The rest of the team was left to try and figure out who was saying what, since Terry had been put to bed. It was hard to believe he was actually fourteen, due to the fact he looked and acted younger than Trent. Said brunette made sure the other teen was well asleep before leaving the room. With both translators unable to help them, the team sat and waited for Trent to come out of the washroom, and not much happened. Kyouju had to leave due to the fact his mother wanted him to come home, even after he tried to wheedle and beg his way into staying at Takao's. He said his farewells before leaving reluctantly behind his mother.

While he was sitting there waiting for Trent, a thought occurred to Max and he just had to voice it. He turned to face Takao before asking: "Don't Japanese kids learn English from way back?" Takao looked completely confused, before responding in broken English.

"What?"

"You know, like Canadian kids learn French in school, don't Japanese kids learn English?" Max wanted to know the answer to his question, and the fact that Takao had said one word in English was encouraging.

"Caenaduh? Amai-san and Caldwell-san there?" Takao had only registered the name of a country that he was pretty sure Trent and Terry had mentioned. He also understood 'Japanese' and 'English' but other than that, he was pretty much clueless to what Max was asking.

"No, Trent and Terry are here, but they come from Canada. I think. Anyway, do Japanese children learn English in school?" Max slowed down his speech until a look of somewhat understanding appeared on Takao's face.

"Ah! We learn English a little. I no attention pay to teacher, because think would not need. I write on paper good, but no speak good. English letters hard to write, but Kyouju-kun ask well, speak well, write well. You understand, ne?" Takao looked at Max for approval, and Max nodded. He had understood enough of what Takao was talking about. Both boys grinned at the fact they were able to somewhat communicate in ways other than hand gestures and objects. They felt sort of sorry for Rei though, since the raven-haired teen was sitting off by himself observing their broken conversation. After what seemed like forever, Trent exited the washroom and Rei took his turn. The teen took much less time than any of them, trying to conserve as much water as possible. Once he was finished, the four teens sat themselves down in the family room.

"So, what's it like in Canada? Is it very cold? Do you all live in igloos and take dog sleds to school? When you came to the interview, all of you were wearing shorts and t-shirts, but if you just had enough time to drop off your stuff at the hotel, wouldn't all still be wearing your jackets and pants?" Takao was first to blurt something out, turning to Trent. The brunette tried valiantly to keep a straight face before bursting out in laughter. He translated to the rest of the boys what Takao had asked before turning to face the bluenette boy.

"No, we don't all live in igloos and dog sled our way to school. Seriously, did you believe that?" Takao looked sheepishly at his feet as Trent continued. "Heh, it's okay. Right now, in Canada, temperatures aren't as hot as here. However, it's not so cold that it's snowing and everything. We have four seasons, spring, summer, fall and winter. Right now it's summer, so it's pretty hot out. Nothing as hot as here though, this is crazy; we were warned of how muggy it was here before we left, but we didn't have to change since weather in Canada is really screwed up now and it's so hot." Trent nodded his head. "When it gets cold in Canada, it gets really cold. Depending on where you are, it can go below minus fifty. That's only in winter though, the rest of the time it's pretty good. It's pretty screwed up weather right now, so the seasons are all completely off course. We have global warming to thank for that." He translated to the rest of the people before asking if anyone else had questions. He wanted to straighten out any sort of misconception or stereotype that they had. Max raised a hand.

"So people in Canada don't say 'eh' after every sentence then? Weird, I always believed that. You have a completely different system of democracy than us, right? And you spell color and favorite different?"

"Ya, we do. We have a prime minister while you have a president. And, ya, we don't say 'eh' after every sentence. About the spelling thing, I think you spell it c-o-l-o-r, right? We spell it c-o-l-o-u-r, with a 'u'. I don't know why we do that, it's weird I know. Favourite is the same deal, add a 'u' to it after the 'o'." Trent nodded his head as he talked. The rest of the questions were pretty standard. Trent was able to answer all of them without a problem. The rest of the boys were able to talk a little about their country and smooth out any stereotypes that people had. It was fascinating for them to be able to talk so easily about their cultures and how different and the same sometimes they were. It was going on eleven o'clock before the boys decided to call it quits and stop waiting for Kai to show up. Max and Trent had to get used to the futons once they were shown where to go. They were set up in a training room, and directed on how to clean up after themselves in the morning. Takao left for his room, and Max, Rei and Trent settled to sleep. So ended their first day as a team.

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So... it begins! This is where the fun starts. I hope. Anyway, if anyone could tell me the ages of the guys when season one starts, that would SO be appreciated. As well, if I got where the guys were born wrong, please tell me. I don't know this stuff, so ya. In fact, if I get ANYTHING wrong, tell me, okay? I'll try to correct it if my computer feels like co-operating with me. So ya. Thank you again to everyone who reviewed, it's really appreciated!


	6. Getting Used to it All

Hi! Well, welcome back to the sixth installment of Translation Error(s), sorry to make you wait so long! Life's been a little hectic and stuff, but it's all good now. Anyway, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who reviewed to me! Oh, and you can learn a little more about Trent and Terry in this chapter, and if you could give me any suggestions on how I write them, that'd be great! If at anytime, they appear too perfect, please tell me. I really don't want that.

Disclaimer:I onlyown the idea of this fic, so any name brands, names of shows etc. that appear here are not mine. The characters you do not recognize are mine, and are not to be used in any one else's stories unless I otherwise state. So... ya.

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Max woke with a start, mainly because of Kai raging around the house and banging on any available door he could reach. The Russian teen was yelling something Max couldn't understand, and he quickly stole a glance around the room. A heap of sheets and a tuft of blue hair was evidence enough that Terry was still present, and Trent's head poked out from underneath the sheets of the futon a few feet away. What Max saw next made him panic. Rei's futon was empty. The first thing he thought was that perhaps that was why Kai was going around the house in such a manner. To alert everyone to Rei's absence, and make sure that proper help was sent. The next thought that crossed his mind was he ought to get everyone else up to share the news. He quickly decided the most fun way to do that was to pelt the people with pillows, so he started with Trent. The brunette teen groaned and rolled over when the pillow made contact with the back of his head, and the blond giggled. He stalked over the side of the other boy's futon and quickly took a handful of the sheets before cruelly pulling them away. Trent sleepily waved a hand to try and ward off the offending teen, but Max nimbly jumped out of reach. "Come on Trent, get up! Kai's in a fuss and I don't know why unless you translate, so get off your lazy butt so I can understand what's going on!" Max gave Trent a few hard nudges in the side with his foot, avoiding the brunette's attempts at trying to make him go away. Eventually, Trent rolled over and sat up, yawning and stretching before trying to flatten his hair.

"You're too cruel Max. You could have woken me up _nicely_, but of course, you're not that kind of person." Trent made a face before yawning again and looking at the other teen in mock annoyance. "Does it give you pleasure to strip teenagers of their bedding?"

"Dude, you have NO idea how wrong that just sounded." Max responded, throwing the desired piece of bedding at the brunette's head. "And just for the record, yeah. Anyway, what the heck is Kai raving about out there? I'm afraid that he's not human…" The blond cocked his head in the direction of the door, through which they could still hear the Russian teen yelling and banging on doors. "Is there something wrong that he's finally speaking or what?" Trent shrugged his shoulders before putting on a thoughtful face and listening to the utterances.

"First off, you're sort of asking the wrong person. I can understand Russian okay, but not great. Second off, he's saying things I don't want to repeat at this moment. But I'll tell you the general gist of what he's yelling." The brunette listened for a little while longer, his brow furrowed as he thought through what was being said. He finally seemed to decide what to translate, and looked over at Max. "Basically, he's yelling at everyone to get up, because you all have training and he won't have any of you slacking off. He's also saying that if Rei can get up early as he can, then why not the rest of us." Max let out a breath of relief, so Rei was safe and all Kai was yelling about was how lazy they were. That was fine. A mischievous grin appeared on Max's face when he realized that they still had one more person to wake up. Or rather, two, if Takao was not already awake. Trent read him like an open book. "Ah, you aren't planning to throw pillows at Terry are you? I'm warning you now, he may seem like a sweet guy, but get him angry and you'll regret it…" He trailed off to look at the heap of sheets over in the corner that could only be identified as Terry because of the blue tuft of hair protruding from underneath. "Why don't you try a little less physical way of getting him up, hm?" Max grabbed a pillow and started to throw it in Terry's direction, but before it reached its destination Trent had plucked it out of the air. He fluffed it almost thoughtfully for a moment, before unexpectedly turning and whipping it at the surprised American boy. Max had no opportunity to move out of the way as the pillow caught him off guard and traveled at quite the speed. It hit him within moments, and he sat there stunned after contact.

"Ouch?" He asked, looking from the pillow in his lap to the boy who had thrown it. Trent just gave him a wicked smirk. "I didn't think pillows were allowed to travel that fast." Max said, still a little bit stunned from the contact. "Did anyone catch a license plate on that?" At this, Trent laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah, since when did pillows have license plates, hm?" he asked, still laughing at the blonde's expense. "I didn't mean to throw it so hard that I would dislodge your brain, sorry man." Max took this comment in stride and shook off the remainder of his shock.

"That's real nice, but really. How the heck did you throw that pillow so hard!" Max saw a glimmer of laughter still remaining in the brunette's eyes even after the teen had stopped laughing.

"I just throw it as hard as I can. Nothing special." He looked casually at Max, and then jabbed a thumb at the pile of sheets and Terry still on the floor. "Anyway, we should get him up before Kai decides to murder us off or something, and before Rei's cooking gets cold." Trent inhaled deeply and relished in the scent of Asian cuisine, and watched as Max tried to pick up the scent as well.

"Oh, ya, that smells too good to get wasted! C'mon, let's leave him here and pick him up later or something." Max suddenly realized how hungry he was and wanted to eat anything at that point.

"If you're that hungry, go ahead. I'll wake up Terry." Max debated for a few seconds before deciding to stick with the brunette for as long as it would take to wake up his friend. Trent shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'you're loss' before turning his attention to the bluenette behind him.

"All right Terry, wake up call." Trent nudged the shorter boy with his foot, though gently. "Max is waiting to eat because of you, it's not fair to deprive him of food." The brunette gave him a few more nudges before bending down to grab his pillow.

"Get up! So this is where all of you are, I want all of you up and eating now!" Trent was saved having to deprive Terry of his pillow by Kai opening the door and yelling at the three teens. Terry gave a start, and sat up trying to look alert. This seemed to please Kai enough, as he turned around and headed out, off to go find his next victim.

"Terry, time to get up. I know you're tired, but at least eat something okay?" Trent looked apologetically at his friend, and Max nodded.

"Maybe eating something will help," he offered, trying to be helpful. The two boys had, of course, just come to Japan from a country thirteen hours different.

"Yeah, it might. Man, I'm starving…" The bluenette boy yawned again, blinked several times and then grabbed Trent's arm to help him up. "Uhm, you're Max right? I wasn't really awake for the introduction… Sorry." Terry really looked sincere, and Max said simply that it was okay. The door of the room was once again opened, this time with a much sweeter tempered person on the other side.

"Hey guys, breakfast is ready now. I tried to make enough for all of us and Takao, judging on how much we ate last night. Speaking of, he's sort of still asleep right now and Kai is outside his bedroom yelling." Rei was looking alert and awake as he stepped into the room. "Ah, I see that we've got some people still pretty much asleep here too, hm?" he asked, looking pointedly at Terry. The teen offered a weak smile, which Rei answered with one of his beaming grins. "That's okay, a little bit of food will wake you right up." The Chinese blader was already dressed into a pair of faded jeans and a light cotton t-shirt. The rest of the Western teens were embarrassed that they were still in their boxers. "I hope that Kai hasn't gone to drastic measures in trying to wake up Takao, he seemed very annoyed when he came by the kitchen. He was mumbling something and I think that Takao's sleeping like a log is getting on his nerves." Rei was looking down the hall for any signs of the Russian blader, then he turned around to look at the westerners again. "I suggest you get dressed quickly, I don't want my food to get cold!" With that he left them to give the teens some privacy so they could change.

"What did he just say?" Max asked, looking at the spot where the Chinese blader had been standing seconds before.

"He just said that Takao's still asleep, Kai's trying to wake him up and not succeeding, and that he suggests we get dressed before his food gets cold." Trent translated as he rummaged around in his duffel for some suitable attire for the day. Terry quickly found his backpack discarded in the far corner of the training room, and started pulling things out.

For Max, most of his luggage had yet to arrive at the Kinomiyou household, so he just threw on what he had been wearing the day before. He had ditched the hoodie after overheating and pretty much dying of dehydration the one day he'd tried seeing how long he could last. The hoodie (and all other long sleeved things for that matter) was now safely stuffed at the very bottom of his duffel, and Max wondered what on Earth his mother had been thinking when she told him to bring something warm. Terry was rummaging around almost desperately for something or other, and making quite a fine mess of his stuff as well. Trent however almost immediately found what he was looking for and soon joined his friend in cleaning up the mess of shirts that the blue haired youth had left behind. When they all had finally declared themselves decent, they made plans to come back and clean up after themselves (futons and so forth) after breakfast. With that, all three teens headed in the direction they were pretty sure the kitchen was in.

It wasn't hard to find the dining area, as the smell of food wafted so obviously that the boys really only had to follow their noses. They soon found themselves in the dining room, with Kai, Rei and (surprisingly) Takao sitting down around the table. Takao was basically inhaling the food, while Kai was glaring at it as if it had committed a serious offence. The only really pleasant face that was there was Rei, who had an empty plate, explaining that he wanted everyone here before they began eating. When he explained this, he made a point of looking over at Takao who didn't seem to have heard him. Trent and Terry were quick to translate Rei's displeasure to Takao, who sort of half grinned in the Chinese teen's direction before offering the excuse:

"It just smelled too good! If you don't want people eating it as soon as they sit down, dude, stop making such good food!" Rei looked taken aback, before regaining his composure and saying he'd take that as a compliment. Everyone began eating, well, except Kai. He was still looking funny at most of the food laid out before him. Trent tried his best to explain what most of the things were, but it was like trying to tell a book what a television was. The food that was now in front of him (Kai that is) was much different from what he'd ever seen before, or eaten. He simply sniffed at it, and then did nothing more.

Takao (in between mouthfuls, and as he could handle it) recounted the dramatic tale of how Kai had woken him up. He took on the position as if it were a horror story or something of the sort, and made large hand gestures and sound effects as needed. In the end, most of the people at the table (most being everyone but Kai) were laughing so hard they were unable to eat much more. Terry didn't even bother translating to Kai, seeing as the Russian teen was showing no interest in what was going on, and all his attention seemed to be fixed on a bowl of Japanese sticky rice. Plus, the Canadian teen could probably not have been able to translate what Takao was saying while keeping a straight face.

At length, Kai decided that he'd had enough and spoke up. "Today will be assessment of your skills as bladers. I have been able to watch you only a few times, and I'd like to be able to see how competent you really are. And you-" he stopped and looked at both Canadian boys "- will be joining us in training. I see no reason why you should just stand around and not do anything." Terry tried to hold back a look of surprise, while Trent pointed out the obvious problem.

"Unfortunately, Kai, we don't have beyblades and we have not the slightest clue as to how to use them." Trent was guessing this would stop the Russian teen in his tracks, but he was wrong.

"I believe that the boy named Kyouju has a few spare blade parts that he could put together into something almost half decent. You should ask him when he comes over today." Kai looked unabashed by the problem the brunette brought up as he calmly explained his solution. Takao sort of nodded his head before replying that Kyouju did indeed have a lot of extra blade parts and that he would be probably more than happy to throw something together for the two boys. He also said that Kyouju was coming over to collect statistics, so they could ask him as soon as he arrived.

The brown haired boy with the thick glasses soon arrived at the doorstep after the teens had wrapped up eating. Trent and Rei had disappeared into the depths of the kitchen to clean up the dishes while the rest of the teens sat idly and swapped random thoughts. Terry tried his best to keep up with the statistics that Kyouju was spitting out like seeds, but eventually gave up and just tried to look politely interested. Max however found them fascinating. Takao finally remembered what they were going to ask the smaller brown haired boy, and told him their plans for involving Terry and Trent in their training. So as they waited, Kyouju tinkered with this and that to try and make a good balance for each boy. He asked many random questions as he did this, and typed it all up. Things such as "How old are you?" to "are you right or left handed?" to "Do you play many sports?" were asked of the bluenette teen. He answered both for himself and for Trent, and Kyouju quickly started to type up every word that came out of the other teen's mouth in an almost frantic manner. Soon, not only had Trent and Rei finished washing dishes, but Kyouju was beaming with pride at the two scrap blades he had thrown together for both translators. They weren't much to look at, he told them, but they would be sure to work wonders for them. Trent fingered the foreign object thoughtfully, turning it over and over in his hands, while Terry simply looked at it with utter confusion written on his face.

They were outfitted with a ripcord, a launcher (none of these high quality of course) and a blade before being sent out with Max to get a quick lesson on how to work the blade, and how to stop it. The rest of the teens stood around and watched in amusement as Terry made try after try at launching the blade, only to find out that he'd been holding the launcher backwards. Max had to go over everything from how to hold the blade, to how to put the ripcord in the launcher, to how to put the blade on the launcher. Rei occasionally helped out as well, when he noticed something obviously wrong that Max had not seen. Eventually, the two Canadian teens were able to run through some very basic drills in blade manipulation, and Kai figured that they should stop wasting time and actually start training. It had taken an hour to bring the translators up to beginner status, and so it was quite a shock to suddenly have to live up to regional champion status right after. Kai ran them all through drills that most of them had never encountered before. After exhausting them with working on blading skills (Kyouju caught every second on his computer through the camera) Kai worked them through a long physical labour regimen before letting them break for a late lunch.

Rei had Trent join him in the kitchen and together they whipped up quite a multicultural meal. There were Chinese spring rolls courtesy of Rei, Japanese sticky rice and sashimi with Trent's help, a pot of Indian curry, teriyaki chicken, green beans in soy sauce and sesame seeds, and a Greek salad. Takao's Ojii-san joined them in eating, and complimented the chefs. He decided to go and get some more groceries since he now had about seven mouths to feed instead of just one. Dishes were again washed, this time with everyone's participation (well, you know who didn't help…), however, Trent was unsure if what they had done could have been called dishwashing. Mainly because most of the water was splashed onto them instead of onto the dishes. This could be credited to Max who had accidentally been washing his dish with too much vigour and splashed Takao a little bit. Well, Takao took this as a challenge, and you know how he is about those. In no time, the rest of the teens were sopping wet (including a certain Russian, much to his displeasure) and they all had to change into some dry clothing. The wet pieces were set out on a makeshift clothesline that Max managed to wrestle up, and left there to drip-dry. They then had to mop up the mess they'd made, and tuck the dishes safely back into their respective cupboards. Kai was so irate by the end of this that he punished them with a harder labour-intensive regimen after they had finished with their folly.

Most teens were sore by the end of five minutes, but Kai pushed them onward. They were running around any sort of place that Kai saw fit, and they had probably ran a good few miles in an hour… or two. All of them had lost track of time. Max came to wonder if Kai was some sort of robot that was unable to feel anything at all. That's the way he seemed to the blond. Rei seemed to keep up fairly easily to the slate-haired teen throughout the training, with Trent right on his heels. Max was a bit behind, just barely keeping up to an optimistic Terry, who would look over his shoulder every so often to yell encouragement at Takao.

In truth, he wasn't actually that far behind, but the navy-haired Japanese teen was losing steam. Terry kept up a constant pace, and Max found himself faltering after a while, to keep up. As they ran, the translator talked animatedly as if they were taking a leisurely walk through the woods instead of pounding their way up some random street with a huge hill. He talked all about Canada, and his school, and his family back home. He spoke fondly of Nat, who had been sent back to await another job offer, saying that Nat had made him and Trent promise to write so that he could hear what it was like in other countries. Max finally caught enough breath to ask how the heck he and Trent were able to keep running and appear so at home. Terry grinned and replied that he and Trent were on the track team back at home, and that "We drive each other up the wall because we're so close in athletics. There's a sort of friendly competition between us, to see who can do better at what. So far Trent's winning, but only by a few sports." The bluenette nodded his head, and pointed out that the other three had stopped now. They pulled up to meet with them and Kai surveyed the group with distaste.

"So, these are supposed to be the best bladers in this region. Pathetic." He glowered at them for a few moments more. Takao noticed that not a bead of sweat had appeared on that teen's face, and he looked as if he'd not done anything over the past training time. Rei was stretching, and Trent had his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Max simply fell down and sat on the ground, stretching out his legs in front of him, while Takao collapsed beside him.

"Tttrreeeennnntttt! I thought you were better than that!" Terry whined, though he was breathing a little bit heavier than before. Trent made a face.

"We've never had to do anything like THAT before in training, plus, never in this sort of heat! This smog is killing me, you know, even though I took my inhaler!" Trent put a hand to his chest and took a few deep breaths, then noticed that a lot of eyes were on him. "Uhm, I'm asthmatic. Not real bad, but smog and smoke and stuff is evil. It doesn't get in the way of training, really, just when smog levels are a little bit over normal, I can't do much." He looked around to see if anyone understood what he was talking about. "In a nutshell asthma is basically when your bronchial tubes get irritated and swell and restrict air going through, and you start coughing a lot. It's not contagious, more like genetics and stuff. So ya, I just have a mild case, nothing too bad. Seriously." Terry gave him a worried look, as did Max, Rei and Takao once they knew what he was talking about.

"That sounds awful! Does it hurt?" Rei asked, looking over the other teen. He never really would have guessed.

"No, not at all. It just gets a little annoying, you don't have to worry, I'm fine, really!" Trent gave everyone a reassuring smile, and nodded his head at Kai. "Anything you got planned to do now, you better do now before everyone decides they've had enough and start to desert you."

"They will not leave until training is finished." Kai replied simply, giving everyone a hard glare as if to reinforce his statement. It worked like a charm.

"Man, you got anything else planned for 'Training Boot-Camp from Hell?' Please say no." Max said, looking pleadingly at the older teen.

"Ya Kai, I think that we've done enough for now. Dude, can't you give us all a break or something!" Takao put on his best puppy-dog eyes and tried to think fast. Not exactly his best attribute, but he worked on it. "You don't wanna kill Trent-san do you! Man, you kill him all we got is the European dude. Not that you'd care Mr. I'm-Russian-So-You'd-All-Better-Fear-Me-Or-Die because you speak Russian and that's European… or something." Takao nodded his head and then paused as he realized what he'd just said.

"Oookkkaaayyy then… Nice try Takao, but I don't think that you got your message across." Max looked over at Terry who translated to Kai what Takao had just said, and then to Trent who translated to Takao. The Japanese teen huffed and crossed his arms, trying to look annoyed. Kai, however, quickly put any conversation out of their minds.

"We're about four miles north of that kid's house" – that kid being Takao – "and unless you want the length increased, you will all shut up right now." Kai looked them all over. "Anyone have any objections? No? I thought so." He then turned and started jogging in the general direction of Takao's house; Rei and Trent shrugged their shoulders before following the slate-haired teen's quickly disappearing head. Terry gave Max a hand up, and then the both of them gave Takao two hands each. By the time that Takao had finally gotten up, Terry and Max had all but lost sight of the back of Kai's head, and they had to do a little bit of catch-up.

After all of them had finally reached Takao's house puffing and panting (well, in some peoples' cases), there awaited yet another surprise. Fan girls. A whole hoard of fan girls. The Rei and Kai fan girls had joined forces to create one monster huge hoard of girls that stood in front of Takao's gate.

"Oh. My. God." Was all Rei was able to stutter as soon as he'd caught sight of the giggling mass. Kai quickly veered off in another direction to disappear somewhere, noticeably gaining speed. Some girls tried to follow him, only to be left in the dust. They all settled for crowding Rei.

"Wow, Kami, I never knew there were so many girls in this area…" Trent surveyed with interest as Rei was almost fallen upon by all of the over excited girls. There were a few who crowded Max, and Takao was practically left alone. One girl quickly caught sight of the two Canadian boys and called attention to them.

"Hey, I've never seen them! Who are they!"

"Ya, who are they?"

"They don't look like they're from around here… Well, the blue-haired guy beside the tall guy doesn't anyway."

"You think the tall guy's a mix?" Whispers were sent around the group as more and more girls caught sight of the two abandoned teens standing off to the side. Trent raised his hands as if to protect himself, and Terry gave a small 'eep' before they were surrounded.

"Who are you?"

"Are you part of the team?"

"You weren't in the qualifying tournament! What are you doing with them!"

"Please, we're not anyone important!" Terry insisted, as he tried to hide behind Trent, and then began trying desperately to get the girls to stop poking him.

"Uwah! He speaks Japanese!" The girls gasped as Terry nodded his head. Rei battled his way in so that the three of them were all in the center of the hoard together.

"This is Caldwell, Terry; and Amai, Trent, they're our translators! Please don't hurt them!" Rei pleaded with the fan girls, looking over at Trent who quickly changed languages. The girls sort of went silent for a second as they mulled over what Rei had just said, before they started speaking rapidly amongst themselves. "Uh, what are they saying?" Rei asked, looking over uncertainly at Terry (who was closer). The Canadian teen put on a look of concentration as he listened to the voices surrounding them before nodding his head.

"They're just talking about how Kai wouldn't need sissy translators because they'd heard he was living by himself in a Tokyo hotel for all of the qualifiers. They're also saying that… wait a sec…" Terry paused to listen more to the banter before turning back to Rei. "They're saying we could be really immature and we could make it sound like you're saying stupid things. Or something like that. Ah! Here's Max." The American teen came into view at that moment, being pushed along by an irate Takao. The Japanese teen looked like you could fry an egg on his face as he joined them all at the center of the hoard.

"All right, you guys got your eye candy, now go away! We just got back from training and we're dying here!" Takao made shoeing motions with his hands and growled. Most of the girls sort of jumped so that they were a few feet away from him. "Scram! We're tired okay, we need to rest! You know that thing where you sit down and do nothing for a little while? We just ran like twenty million miles because that jerk you idolize made us, so you'd better let us go right now!" The girls looked disappointed before going off and muttering that Takao had ruined their fun. Rei breathed a sigh of relief, and Terry peered out from behind a stunned Trent. Max clapped Takao on the back.

"Thanks man, we needed that." The blonde said, looking appreciatively at the Japanese teen. The navy-haired youth grinned proudly before his stomach exploded into a huge growl. He looked embarrassed and laughed awkwardly.

"I guess it is coming time to eat, ne? We should be having dinner right now!" Rei headed for the house, and the rest of the teens followed suit, looking around warily to check that a girl hadn't strayed from her direction away.

Rei quickly whipped up a supper, and Trent worked on bringing the towels and things down from the drying line they had set up earlier that day. Kyouju had abandoned them a while ago; he'd had to go do homework or something, and he really only needed the blading portion of their training. Anyhow soon supper was cooked, and everyone sat down to a much-deserved meal.

"Mmm… This is awesome." Terry gave Rei a thumbs-up, as did Max. Takao was too busy shoving food in his mouth to do much else. Rei tried desperately to keep Takao from eating decorative pieces, however many of the colourful plants were lost anyway. After the supper, Takao apologized profusely to Rei about his lost plant ornaments, and then promised to try and find some replacements. Trent was quite sure that this was never going to happen, but he didn't speak up at all when translating. It was the fact that Rei was pleased with the response that mattered, he guessed.

The boys decided to try and pull another Stay-Awake-Until-Kai-Comes night, this time with Terry. The bluenette got ready for bed anyway, fearing that by the time the Russian teen showed up, he'd be too tired to get ready. Max figured that it wouldn't hurt, and soon the rest of the boys were scrambling for the washroom. Rei managed to squeeze in after Max, and then Takao ambushed Trent in order to get in fourth. Takao's Ojii-san just watched from the sidelines, and laughed occasionally at the unfolding events. By the time that all of the boys had gotten themselves organized, Ojii-san had decided to turn in, and Kai was still not 'home'.

They had only to wait a few hours for the Russian teen in question to turn up, cold and silent as ever, on Takao's doorstep. He simply said that there was training the next day, and that he expected them up earlier than he had had them up this day. Immediately, a flurry of motion was sent into action as the teens tried to get their futons set up properly. Takao, however, was not one of them. He simply said his good-nights to everyone before turning in without offering a hand of help to anyone. Kai had again disappeared into the depths of Takao's house, probably off into a separate room that he found suitable. The three western teens, and the one Chinese, soon figured out how to set up their futons properly; most of them had forgotten where they were stored, and how to get them out. Bags were hauled off to the sides of the room, and futons were set up fairly close to one another, so that people could easily wake the others in case Kai decided to go on another rampage. As the lights went out, people quickly said their last good-nights to everyone before snuggling deep into their blankets. The next day, they hoped, would be a little easier.

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Well, congrats on slugging your way through this chapter. I hope I didn't drive anyone insane because of the way I write. If you could give me feedback on any of this, that'd be great! So... ya. Until the next update!


	7. New Arrivals and Quick Departures 1

Sorry for the lackage of Translation Error(s), I seriously didn't forget about it! I finally just gave up on trying to recover my files from the computer. Sorry for the wait! Thank you very much for being so patient with me, I know I've been annoying. I started on Spill It! but I'm not sure whether to delete it or leave it be... We'll see about that. Anyway, here's my update, I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade, nor do I own any other copyrighted material that may appear in this fan fiction. The characters you do not recognize are mine, and are not to be used unless otherwise stated.

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_Beep-beep-beep-be—_Terry groaned and rolled over, hitting the top of the alarm clock in hopes that there would be a sleep button there. No such luck. All the bluenette managed to do was hit the offending piece of machinery farther away, as it skidded loudly across the polished wood floor. This woke up his American companion, who pulled a pillow over his head and moaned.

"Argh… Terry, YOU turn it off… I'm not getting out of here…" He mumbled into the futon, and the Canadian peered over at the blonde. Max was attempting to burrow his way into the futon permanently, as the alarm kept blaring annoyingly from its position, which just happened to be conveniently out of both teens' reach. Don't you just hate it when you can brush your fingertips against something, and not be able to grasp it? It's just sitting there, tantalizingly out of your reach, mocking you. That's what the alarm was doing, except that it was also making a great deal of noise to top it all off. Terry finally worked up enough nerve to shift into the clock's range, and grabbed it before muffling it under a great deal of sheets. He couldn't be bothered to find the 'off' switch at the back, plus his head was still fuzzy. The alarm quickly gave up its plight and automatically shut off after a few half-hearted 'beep's, and Terry guessed that while muffling it he'd managed to flick the switch. The Canadian dragged himself up and tried in vain to flatten his hair before looking over at the blond sleeping about three inches away from him on a separate futon.

"They're all robots… the lot of 'em, I swear…" was all that the bluenette could make out from what Max was mumbling into his futon, along with a few groans and then… silence. Terry quickly took advantage of the fact that his blond companion couldn't see what he was doing, before sneaking quietly around to the other side and leaping on top of the American. There was a loud scream from under the sheets before Max surfaced, glaring half-heartedly at the Canadian. Terry was laughing so hard that his face was turning slightly pink from air deprivation, then he got up, straightened out, and ran like mad.

It was a morning routine now, since Terry was more of a morning person than Max was. The Canadian was weird in that he was a little hard to wake up, but as soon as he was up he was pretty much ready to go. Max, however, was not the same. After two weeks (or so… no one was really counting) of Terry jumping on him, the American was still not used to it. Max had no idea where Terry thought of jumping on him, however after a few days it just happened. One morning the bluenette was a little too over-energetic and so was jumping around like crazy. He ended up landing on the unsuspecting American, and it just turned into a routine.

All this was given a few seconds to go through the blonde's mind before he realized that his pillow had gone missing in the commotion. He was only given enough time to pale before the piece of bedding came flying back at him, the poor teen had no time to dodge. Maniacal laughter (which could only be Terry's) was heard outside the door, and Max sat dazed with the question 'Do all Canadians have killer arms like these?' buzzing through his head. Apparently not though, since Canadian sports teams never seemed to do so well at anything they were put to. Max would have hated to see what state the sports industry would be in if all Canadian athletes could throw as hard as the two translators he had come to know. Terry could throw as hard as Trent? Who knew? Bracing himself for any other flying objects, Max took inventory of the room. Rei and Trent's futons were neatly packed away already (being the neat freaks they were, and the early-bird-type-freaks they were as well…) so he need not worry about that. Terry's pillow was carelessly thrown into a mess of sheets and alarm clock in the middle of his futon, and Max's own pillow had just come hurtling back at him at super-sonic speeds. It seemed that everything was in its place. Even so, the blonde prepared himself for anything. Apparently, Terry had had his fun, and Max could hear footsteps fading down the hall. He allowed himself to relax a little, and as soon as he had done that, something else came hurtling at him, this time catching him on the side. It wasn't a pillow, but Takao. The Japanese was trying to hide behind the American, but it didn't quite work since the navy haired teen was a little bit wider. No sooner had Max gotten over the shock of Takao invading his personal space, than yet another pillow came flying towards him. It hit with a satisfying '_whap_' as the American was dazed yet again.

"What is this, throw stuff at Max day? COME ON GUYS!" He yelled, after regaining his composure best he could. Takao was laughing, and Max heard two voices outside the door, though he could not understand what they were saying. He caught only a few snippets of conversation, and from what he'd heard it was all in French. The only thing he basically understood was 'bonjour.' After a few seconds of conversation, Trent came racing through the door, slamming it behind him. Max looked over interestedly at the brunette, who was desperately trying to hold the door closed as Terry tried to get the door open.

"What'd you do?" Takao asked simply, looking at the Canadian strangely.

"I… made a translation error." He answered, losing concentration long enough for Terry to be able to squeeze in. The blue-haired youth immediately tackled the taller teen.

"You're so mean! Take that back!" Terry mock glared at the teen he had pinned to the ground. Max snickered. Whatever was happening, it was kind of funny. Terry was shorter, and lighter as they had found out, than Trent, and here he was quite effectively pinning down the other.

Takao watched the scene, not really understanding anything because they were both busy speaking in some kind of weird language he didn't speak. He looked over at Max for help, however the blonde teen had no idea what was being said either. The scene just looked funny, and so the navy haired teen began snickering. This caught Terry's attention long enough for Trent to push him off.

"Well, that was… interesting…" Max said, trying to fill the awkward silence that filled the room. After a shortened translation courtesy of Trent, Takao nodded his head.

"Very." He answered, and completely randomly the two team mates broke into laughter. It was quite normal now, the two boys would usually do this. None of the other people around them quite understood what triggered any of it, nor why they would do such a thing, but needless to say that when it happened during training, Kai was none too pleased. This usually ended in some kind of mad dash to get away from Kai's crazy blade of I'll-kill-you-so-bad-you-won't-know-what-hit-you-and-you'll-die… ness.

For about two weeks (or so… everyone had basically lost count of time because the schedule was so repetitive… (Eat, train, eat, train, eat, SLEEP!)) the boys had been forced to go through so many drills that they couldn't even remember half of them. At one point, every single one of them had become numb enough to be able to deal with almost all of it… but as soon as they adjusted, Kai changed the training regimen. The translators had also been dragged along with doing every single thing, however Kyouju had somehow managed to avoid even lifting a finger, save to adjust the camera on his laptop. They all hated him for that.

So far, they had had only one day off of training, mainly because Kai was so absolutely frustrated with them, and also because if he didn't give them a day off, most likely all of them would have died some kind of painful death or another. This free day of free-ness was shrouded in a mist of chores that needed to be done. Shopping, for instance. All of the teens had been putting off the inevitable, which was the fact that Max's clothes had been lost in his mother's world of chaos, and Rei only really possessed clothing that was not very good for training in. Mind you, this shopping trip was not enjoyed, and every single one of the teens was miserable by the end of the few hours they had there.

Takao had basically been banned from the entire mall after he had decided that he would try and design a robot out of mall benches and plants so that he wouldn't have to go shopping, while Max had been crowded by a bunch of Japanese people who had a 'thing' for blonds. He came out feeling very violated. Rei, on the other hand, had no problem blending in, it was when he lost sight of Trent that things got complicated. He was stuck in the middle of the mall with no translator what-so-ever on hand, and people began recognizing him as one of the contestants in the qualifiers. As you can imagine, this didn't end so well, with Rei having to seek refuge in the boy's washroom. Here he found Trent, also trying to hide from crazed girls who wanted him to let them meet the Bladebreakers. Kai had not agreed to go on the shopping trip, and so instead had gone off to some unknown place for some unknown reason to do who-knows-what. Most people were envious of him. When all of the teens met up, they suddenly realized that Terry had gone missing, and this resulted in a frantic search for him, lead by Trent. He was eventually found, traumatized by fan-girls, and for the rest of the day refused to lose sight of any one of the Bladebreakers at any given time.

Needless to say, the trip was not called a success, even though they had basically gotten what they needed. An alarm clock for the translators and Rei, more decent clothing for said Chinese and a certain American, as well as a few random other things that the teens had suddenly realized they needed. Rei had gone exhausted to work at his part-time job, taking Trent with him so that he could actually for the first time, understand what was being said. This was the first and last time, as the manager told Rei that he would rather the teen get a good rest than have him rushing over to work all the time. Since Rei no longer needed the money, he thanked the manager for his kindness and resigned from waiting. It was one less thing for him to worry about.

This morning, Rei had graciously prepared a meal of European style, which included scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausages and many other typical foods you might find. He and Trent had once again teamed up to create a meal that everyone enjoyed, and Takao was actually getting better at eating more politely. It was a fairly silent meal, not many people had the strength to talk much after all of the excitement so early in the morning. Dishes were cleaned by everyone, and it was as this was occurring that something important took place. The doorbell rang. Now, for anybody who didn't know any better, this may not sound quite so important or exciting, but to the Bladebreakers it was definitely something they needed to pay attention to. The doorbell was followed by a few polite knocks on the door, and this signalled a flurry of action. Takao and Max immediately threw their rubber gloves off and dashed to the door, as Trent and Rei took their time in following them. Kai even took a little interest in what was happening, as he walked in and leaned so that he could get a clear view of the doorway. Kyouju had not arrived yet, but he was sure to be on his way.

The door was opened over zealously, as Takao looked eagerly out to see whom it was. Everyone held their breath as the door was opened enough to reveal… a neatly turned out young man, standing next to someone all of the Bladebreakers were familiar with.

"Makimoto-san!" Takao burst, grinning hugely. "We knew it was you! What's the news? Did we get in?" Keiichiro looked a little taken-aback by the greeting he got, all of the teens were crowded eagerly in the front hall, awaiting his answer. Rei was first to break the awkward silence.

"Would you like to come in first? You can give us the news in the family room, and you can introduce us to this young man as well." He said, gesturing in to the room just visible at the end of the hallway.

"Why thank you, I accept your offer." Keiichiro replied, politely taking off his shoes and looking at the boy next to him as he did the same. Today, Keiichiro didn't have his trademark briefcase, but he was still very cleanly turned out in a black three-piece suit and tie. The young man standing next to him wasn't quite so formally dressed, however he did have on a pair of clean navy dress pants and a white blouse. He had a very confident air, though he obediently followed Keiichiro's actions and politeness.

Once seated comfortably in Takao's family room, Keiichiro began to talk. "First of all, thank you very much for inviting me in. I'm sure that the intrusion is pulling you off of your training schedule." No one looked particularly worried about this fact, however, so he continued. "What would you like me to cover first? Would you like me to introduce you to this fine young man, or tell you your results?" There wasn't even a huddle as the answer came.

"Tell us if we've been accepted or not!" Takao burst, and Keiichiro grinned.

"I thought so. You have indeed been accepted in to the Asian tournament, congratulations!" There were cheers all around as this news greeted the teens.

"Awesome! I've been waiting for this news for forever!" Max said, a huge smile one his face.

"Yeah! We're gonna rock this team all the way to the finals man!" Takao yelled, punching the air enthusiastically, barely missing his blonde team mate. After the commotion died down, Takao seemed to suddenly notice to teen sitting next to Keiichiro.

"Is that your son?" He asked, looking from Keiichiro to the teen. They certainly looked similar enough; Keiichiro had neatly kept, near-black hair that was brushed off to the side, and was quite a bit longer than what men his age were wearing it as. It wasn't quite so long that it was shocking, but it reached to the bottom of his earlobes, and was layered down to there. If you didn't know any better, you might have mistaken him for a teenager in his own right, but there was a certain air about him that made you certain he was just under thirty. The young man by his side looked fairly similar, however his hair was longer, just past his chin. It was also swept off in the same manner, however it didn't curl in at the end in the front as Keiichiro's did, and it wasn't layered at all. The young man's eyes were a grey colour, compared to Keiichiro's, which were a brown.

"No, I'm much too young to have a son as old as this!" Keiichiro answered, laughing. "I'm only twenty-five Takao-san!" There was shock in the room as he said this.

"You're much older than I thought you were, then!" Max said. The translator laughed a little more before smiling at the blond.

"Why thank you! I'm very flattered that you thought that."

"So then who's that guy?" Takao asked, pointing over at the young man sitting silently next to the translator.

"Allow me to introduce myself…" He said, smiling a weird combination between a smile and a smirk. "My name is Sorata Yuuji, I'm currently fourteen years old, and my birthday is January fifth. I'm an Asian specialist just like Trent, so I basically speak the same languages as him. My European is slightly better than his though." There was a smug kind of air that accompanied this comment, and Trent simply acted as though he didn't care at all. Yuuji continued. "I don't come from Daiji as these two are… I'm from Crescent Falls Junior High School, Daiji's main competitor when it comes to basically anything. I was born in Calgary Alberta, I believe that you met Hazukashii Kenji; he was born there as well. I'm going to be your new translator." Confusion followed this comment.

"Are you going to be replacing Trent?" there was a slightly panicked tone to Rei's voice as he said this.

"We really like having him around! Please don't replace him!" Max added, looking desperately at Keiichiro. The man smiled.

"Amai-san is not going to be replaced, don't worry so much!" There was a collective sigh of relief when the translator said this. "Sorata-san is simply here to provide back-up. Four languages and two translators doesn't really make a good equation, don't you think?" He asked, looking around the room. "Since one of you is bound to be speaking at least one of the languages at all times, we figure that three translators would be best." More relief. Yuuji nodded his head.

"Long time, no see, eh Trent?" both translators smiled. "I see that Terry's been hired as well… You two, never see one without the other no matter _where _you go. How have you been?"

"You know each other?" Max had to ask, since the translators seemed to be getting on pretty well.

"We may not go to the same school, but Crescent Falls is just a few blocks away from Daiji, and ever since Daiji opened there's been a tradition of having one day off school every year to meet with Crescent Falls. We host every other year." Terry explained, looking over at Yuuji, who nodded.

"That's how I met this crazy couple." Yuuji gave what was becoming his signature smile/smirk, which was greeted by confused looks. "Oh, you don't know? Well, I'll leave that for you to figure out then. I really meant what I said." Keiichiro cleared his throat.

"Well, now that introductions have been made, I can carry on with the news about the Asian tournament!" The air in the room instantly became excited and happy. "Now, I know this is short notice, but we will need you to be ready to leave by tomorrow morning at 5 AM. There will be a limo coming to pick you up and take you to the airport. Daitenji-san and I will meet you there, and you will receive your tickets there as well. I'm giving you today to get organized. You'll need your passport, your luggage, and tags to identify it with. Please be prompt, the flight is at 8 AM, and we don't want you getting late. Both Daitenji-san and myself will not be accompanying you, however we will be flying over later. I hope that's okay with you. When you arrive, you'll be in Hong Kong; it's a direct flight from Tokyo to there. You'll be picked up by means of another limo, and driven to your hotel. We've just arranged everything, and we've made sure that you have time to rest and relax for at least a day." The tone of Keiichiro's voice sounded apologetic enough, and so the Bladebreakers didn't say anything in objection. "Thank you for listening to me, I best get going! I do hope that you will get along well with Sorata-san, if you don't just call me." With that, the man stood up and walked made his way to the door. "See you later!" was his last comment, before closing the door with an air of finality behind him. There was silence.

"… I guess we're not training much today, huh?" Max asked hopefully, not looking over at Kai for fear that he might object.

"All of you will pack your bags and get organized now. Rei and Trent, finish up cleaning the dishes." Ah, the man of few words strikes again. Yuuji grinned.

"Not very talkative are we? That's too bad."

"You, go get your things together. Where are they anyway?"

"They were left outside the door. Would you be kind enough to help me carry them in?" Kai snorted at this comment, then turned and left the room. Yuuji looked hurt. "My my… I suppose I haven't left a very good impression on him already. Such a shame, really." He shook his head as if he had just been scolding a young child, and then shrugged his shoulders before heading towards the front door to retrieve his belongings.

"Don't worry about him, he's always like that to everyone." Max said, bouncing along to follow him out. "Terry said that Kai reminded him of a guy back home. Apparently he's not so talkative either." Yuuji nodded.

"I think I know who he's talking about. They're almost one in the same, Kai and that boy." Max looked at Yuuji expecting more, however the teen seemed to be finished what he was saying about that and quickly changed the subject.

"My bags! Someone's gone and ripped the tag…" Despair was evident in the Canadian's voice as he knelt beside his vandalized travel bag. The neatly labelled and decorated travel tag attached to the largest bag was nearly ripped in half, and hung limply to the side, threatening to fall off. "Oh! I worked so hard on that. That was very mean." Yuuji didn't sound remotely sad when he said this, mainly because he was over-dramatizing the fact. Max went over to console him anyway.

"We can tape it I guess…" He said, gingerly patting the new arrival's shoulder. The thought running through his mind at that moment was Yuuji wasn't quite what he appeared to be. He looked like an organized, formal young man, however to Max, at that moment, he was quite the drama queen… uh, king.

"It's no use, it's beyond repair now anyway." With a wave of his hand, Yuuji had changed emotions once again, now more unconcerned and with a hint of disdain in his voice. Max sighed, this was going to be an interesting trip. "Can you get the smallest bag please? That would be great." Max obliged by taking the second travel bag. The Canadian had only come with two, a large suitcase and a smaller duffle. Grabbing the duffle, Max followed Yuuji back into the house.

"What did you mean when you said 'crazy couple'? You didn't mean Terry and Trent did you?" Max asked, trying to keep up with Yuuji's longer steps.

"You'll find out." Was the only answer he got, no matter how many times he asked.

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Heh, cut it off... sorry about that! I just figured that I'd split it up a little. I'm going to be super busy over the summer time, but I swear I'll try and keep Translation Error(s) going! 'Till next update!


	8. New Arrivals and Quick Departures 2

Hi! Back for more? Lolz. Anyway, I wanted to give you guys an update before summer got too crazy for me, and I'm going to warn you right now you might not see another update for a few months at the least. Sorry about this! I'm going to try my hardest to keep Translation Error(s) running as long as I can, I swear!

I just figured out what the 'stats' button means... Heh. Thanks to everyone who added this story to their favourites list, I'm sorry I didn't know earlier! I also want to say I feel like a jerk now because I didn't recognize half of those people... Argh! I'm really sorry! Anyway, I'm not particularly proud of this chapter, but we'll see how it goes...

Disclaimer: I do no own Beyblade or any other copyrighted material that may appear in this fan fiction. The characters you do not recognize are mine, and are not to be used unless otherwise stated.

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Max groaned. Yuuji, the new guy, was being quite a… to find an appropriate word for him would be hard. Settling with the word 'jerk' Max continued on with his life. Yes, Yuuji was a jerk. A jerk with a capital 'J', accompanied by a few exclamation marks after the word finished. Or, to satisfy himself, Max thought of the word jerk in bold, capital letters, font size a million, and about infinity of exclamation marks accompanying it, written in permanent marker right across that smirking face. If you could imagine that, that would be just about doing it justice. Seriously. And the dark-haired teen seemed to enjoy following the American around, so no one else had to deal with his jerk-I-ness. Lucky ducks.

For the past hour or so, as the translator had 'helped' him clean up his junk from various places in the house, Max had been asking the Asian looking teen the same question: "What did you mean when you said 'crazy couple'?" He never got any answer out of the teen except for a "You'll find out" and that evil smile/smirk of his. It was becoming very annoying, to say the least. After Keiichiro's departure, everyone in the house had to be in motion one way or another. Either they were cleaning up, or washing up, eating, training, packing, you name it, people were probably doing something of the sort. They had just got the news that they were to be up and on a plane in less than seventeen hours, and they had gotten a new arrival to top it all off. And said new arrival was making a nuisance of himself in many different ways.

He always seemed to know just what to say and when to say it to make you go off your nut. When Max said 'jerk' he didn't mean 'uncivilized-cretin-who-is-stupid-to-no-end-and-makes-a-fool-of-himself', Yuuji definitely didn't fit that description of 'jerk'. Heck, he didn't even _deserve_ that definition of jerk. Much as the blonde blader hated to admit it, Yuuji was fairly smart. Infuriatingly smart, actually. And he made it known. Max fumed as he thought over what Keiichiro had said about Mr. Daitenji.

"He's a good judge of character; he won't stick you with someone who isn't nice…." Max mumbled under his breath, as he glanced in Yuuji's general direction. The teen had his back turned at the moment; busy tormenting Kyouju. Sure… _Great _judge of character on this one. Kyouju was trying to convince his mom to let him go along with the team to China, however he was having a hard time of it, and Yuuji wasn't helping the matter. Kyouju's mother had seemed not to like the dark haired translator from the very beginning, and was apprehensively coming around to see things her son's way. That he was 'an upstanding young man who will insure my safety at all times.' At least, that's what the bespeckled brunette was trying to tell his mother. It was kind of working, at least, when Yuuji had his mouth shut and kept his face neutral. As soon as Kyouju had permission to go, his mother had gone off to inspect the rest of the team to make sure she had made the right decision. She already knew Takao, but meeting Max, Rei and Kai was a different story.

Wandering around aimlessly, she decided to talk to whoever she ran into. The translators were off busy doing their own things, mainly packing and cleaning up. Trent was off trying to help Terry find all of his junk and manage to somehow pack it back into the bag the bluenette came with. This left Yuuji to help translate for Kyouju's mother, however he decided he'd go off to do something else. Of course, with no translators on hand Kyouju's poor mother was left with nothing when she ran into Rei. Quite literally, too. Rei wondered what it was with people and bumping into him, as he stumbled backwards just a bit. This time, the offender hadn't fallen on her butt, as Max had.

"Who are you?" Rei asked, looking over the woman. He had never seen her around before, and wondered if she'd just gotten lost or something. This question was met with a look of confusion and an apologetic smile. Rei hit himself mentally. OBVIOUSLY because he was in Japan, people would speak Japanese, which he didn't. Over the few weeks the translators had come into his life, the Chinese blader had almost forgotten about the language barrier, because he had come not to notice Trent and Terry's translations in between the conversations. It was in situations like these that reality suddenly hit Rei, and he realized what an outsider he really was.

Looking around desperately, Rei prayed hard that Trent or Terry or Yuuji (though the dark haired youth seemed to enjoy following around Max, and none of the other Bladebreakers had really gotten the chance to have a conversation with him) would come around the corner of the hallway. No such luck. The Chinese blader was left standing awkwardly in front of a grown woman, with no means of communication. 'I must have the worst luck on the planet' Rei thought to himself, as he quickly hitched a smile on his face and hoped that the woman would go away. He had more important things to do, like help clean up the room he had been staying in and pack away all of the unneeded clothing at this time. He also happened to need to eat lunch as of yet, and hadn't had the time to prepare anything. The woman didn't get the clue.

"Hey! HI HI HI!" Terry suddenly bounded up out of no where and jumped on Rei from behind. The Chinese tensed, he hadn't even noticed that Terry had been behind him, so concentrated was he on the woman and trying to make her go away. "Who's your friend?" He asked, still hanging on to Rei, and wrapping his arms around the Asian teen's neck. The bluenette adopted a curious expression as he looked at the woman over Rei's shoulder.

"I can't tell you if you choke me to death!" Rei exclaimed, grabbing the other teen's arms and tugging at them. Terry instantly let go, a little too fast to be his own doing. Rei turned around to find that Trent had grabbed the over-zealous bluenette and was currently holding him in a headlock. The bluenette struggled in a comical way, before simply giving up and holding loosely to his captor's arm.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience Rei… When Terry gets comfortable enough with people he does stuff like that… Is this the first time he's done that to you, or has this happened before?" Trent was all business, as he looked over the raven-haired teen as if to make sure that his companion hadn't done any critical damage. There was a small cough from behind the teens, and they all jumped to suddenly notice (in Trent's case anyway, and re-notice in Terry and Rei's cases) the woman standing in the middle of the hall. "Who's that?" Trent asked, looking over at Rei curiously.

"That's the problem, I don't know." Was the raven-haired teen's response. "She just bumped in to me. Could you ask her who she is, and if she's lost?" The translator obliged, and forgot long enough about his captive that said teen was able to get out of the headlock. The woman soon replied.

"She says that she's Kyouju's mother, no she's not lost, and who are _you_?"

"Tell her that I'm Rei, and I'm very pleased to meet her."

Conversation went on like this, as Kyouju's mother got used to the idea of translators. These two, she actually liked. It was the third that put her off a little. She didn't know what it was about that teen, but there was something about him that wasn't quite right. However, the actual teammates so far seemed to be decent, and at least two of the three translators gave her a good feeling about sending her son on the trip to Hong-Kong. With that, she was on her way again, this time accompanied by the taller of the two translators. The shorter one (Terry was it?) had stayed behind to learn how to fix a meal with Rei as his teacher.

Taking Trent along with her on her adventures had been a fairly smart idea, as the mixed Canadian knew where almost everyone was. This made the mother's job easier as she saved a lot of time in looking for the teens. Kai was no-where to be found, which discouraged Kyouju's mother slightly. However, the translator had managed to accurately guess where a certain American was. Max had created a concoction in his hunger for lunch, and was munching on it in the family room with Yuuji as company (the Asian-looking teen had found the American despite said blonde's attempts at staying away). Yuuji had translated that time, as Trent had gotten an urgent call from the kitchen asking for help. Apparently, Terry had somehow caused the muffins that he had been trying to make spontaneously combust and explode in the oven, leaving smouldering masses of dough splattered all over the inside of said kitchen appliance, and all over said baker. Rei had already started cleaning the oven, however Terry had sustained minor burns from the flying masses of burning goop, and so Trent was called for first aid, and help to clean up the other teen. All of the other teens managed to find out as Terry had to walk past every last one of them on his way to the shower. As soon as it was assured the bluenette was only slightly wounded the event was soon laughed at. They even managed to take a picture, as Terry was being such a good sport. Max soon stopped talking to Kyouju's mom as he left to go help Rei clean up the oven, followed happily by Yuuji. The woman was beginning to wonder about that boy.

With two pairs of hands (Yuuji stood by and watched, saying that he was there for moral support) the oven was cleaned fairly quickly. Even though Rei had little experience cooking with or cleaning any of the appliances in this household, Takao's ojii-san (who insisted on everyone calling him ojii-san) had kindly given the raven-haired teen a walk through of basic kitchen appliance need-to-knows, and Trent had helped to cement that knowledge by helping him every step of the way. By now, Rei was so adept at managing almost all of the pieces of equipment you wouldn't have guessed he had just learned to use them a few weeks ago.

With such an event happening (exploded muffins… no one had ever really witnessed such a thing, or believed that it could happen) the whole house was pretty busy. Kyouju's mother said goodbye and slipped out in the middle of everything, guessing that it would be best if she left. The living conditions were better than she had thought, that Rei was very good at keeping things organized. Everything seemed to be fine, and the woman thought that she could rest easy now that she had actually seen and met the teens her son had been talking about. They had all basically lived up to what Kyouju had described them as: Rei was polite, organized and friendly; Max was nice, happy (though not so much today, apparently (can you guess why?)) and fairly carefree; Takao was… Takao; Kai wasn't present (Kyouju had said to expect this); Terry was… hyper and jumpy, and seemed to need some kind of physical contact with others almost all the time; and Trent was friendly and helpful. She thought over her choice and wondered if she'd made the best one for her son, before shrugging it off and heading home.

Back at Takao's house, things were still calming down after the muffin incident. Terry took a cool shower, and picked out some loose fitting clothing so as not to irritate the mild burns he had sustained. Yuuji was following Max around, and Max was becoming more and more annoyed by the moment. Couldn't the jerk go find someone else to harass? Trent was busy nursing Terry, as Rei hovered around trying to find something useful to do. Takao was stuffing as much as he could into his suitcase, and managed only to have his clothes explode into a crazy mess in the middle of his room. He came out with a pair of boxers sitting idly on his head. More pictures were taken, and this time the subject of the photograph wasn't quite so obliging. Everyone was doing something, whether it contributed to anything or not. Yuuji just happened to be annoying the heck out of Max.

"Why do you keep following me around? Don't you have anything better to do?" Max asked, keeping an even tone of voice and not looking at his pursuer who had now pulled up beside him.

"Nope, I don't have anything better to do." Out of the corner of his eye, the blonde caught a half-smile forming on the translator's lips, though it wasn't his normal smile/smirk combination.

"Then why not follow around someone else?"

"Because you remind me of someone."

"What kind of someone?"

"Someone I want." Max stopped dead at this response as he looked over at Yuuji in disbelief.

"You want… a guy?" Yuuji stopped walking as well, and smirked slightly. Max kind of backed away from the translator at this.

"You only remind me of him… Too bad you aren't him." There was a slightly far-away quality to his voice as he said this, and the blond couldn't really tell if the translator was playing with him or not. "I believe you may have met him. Fine young man, blond, though he controls his hair rather better than you do." At this comment, Max unconsciously ran a hand through his hair, as if in a vain attempt to flatten it. Yuuji smirked at this motion. "What can I say? I know what I want. You've got your answer now, happy?" The tone of his voice completely changed as the dark haired teen put on a smile, though his eyes still held a smug kind of air. The American backed up, and began walking backwards down the hall, keeping his eyes on the other teen.

"My… aren't we just a tad bit paranoid? I suppose you'll be wanting some private time now, hm?" Max simply nodded in answer to this question before turning around and running as fast as he could away from the translator. He could hear the other teen chuckle to himself, before footsteps told the blond that the Canadian had started walking the other way.

So, not only was Yuuji a JERK, but he also happened to be GAY and after Max… Or, not quite, the dark haired Canadian had only said "reminds me of" not "I want you." Still to Max, the prospect of having a gay translator on an all boys team was a little unsettling. Guys hitting on guys… just felt wrong, mainly because he wasn't gay. Max thought over this as he rushed down to his shared room. As soon as he entered, he noticed the translator's bags neatly packed into the corner of the room. Please no. Tell him this wasn't happening. He was going to have to SHARE A ROOM with that… that… JERK! Trent was sitting down next to Rei, and both were packing a few pieces of clothing away into their bags. Terry, on the other hand, was still sort of recovering mentally from the muffin incident, and was sitting propped up against a wall. Max headed over and pulled up a seat beside the Canadian, and gave him a once over to take in the damage. It wasn't much, his skin was just a little more red and irritated looking in some places. At the moment, the blue haired teen was wearing a thin white shirt that had the sleeves rolled up slightly, and a pair of baggy shorts. He looked over at Max, and a slightly interested look passed over his features.

"What's happened? You look a little bit freaked out." Terry shifted a little so that he could look Max in the eyes. "Looks like you've finally got Yuuji off your back though, eh?" This comment was accompanied by a pretty large grin, and a laugh.

"Yeah, he's finally decided to leave me alone…" By now, Rei had taken an interest in the conversation, and had Trent doing a running commentary. Max could hear it, though the brunette was trying desperately to keep his voice down. "Hey listen… Is Yuuji… Uh… Well…" To just ask straight out "Is Yuuji gay?" seemed a little too forward for Max's taste, so the blond stuttered before falling flat.

"…Gay? We don't know for sure, but he knows what he wants. It doesn't matter what it is, either." Trent seemed to have caught on to what the American was struggling with, and the blond gave him an appreciative look. The Canadian quickly reddened. "Not that I was listening to your conversation… That is… I…" He figured that he'd already made enough of a fool of himself, and shut-up immediately. Terry grinned even larger, and Rei tried valiantly to suppress laughter, though failing quite miserably.

"So, did he say something about wanting you?" Rei asked teasingly, still trying to not laugh at his teammate's predicament. As unsettling as probably having a gay translator on the team seemed, he couldn't help finding some kind of humour in Max's panic.

"No… But he did say something about me reminding him of someone he wants. That's almost as bad." Max shivered slightly at the thought. "He said I'd probably met this person too… Wonder who it is, I feel sorry for the kid." At this, Terry and Trent looked at each other with that kind of 'I know something you don't know' look. Max caught it, and so did Rei.

"Any clues, guys?" the Chinese asked, looking from one to the other. The two Canadians shook their heads in unison.

"Hey Rei, shouldn't you be preparing dinner by now?" Takao suddenly threw the door open, and burst in unexpectedly. "I'm starving!" The navy haired teen took a look around the room, and noticed that both Canadians present were giving sighs of relief. "Hey, what's been going on? Where's Kai? Dude, this isn't cool!" Terry burst out laughing, clutching at his sides and turning slightly pinker than he already was. "What? What'd I do?" After casting around pathetically for help from anyone in the room, the Japanese teen gave up on understanding what was happening. "It's like… five guys, and we still haven't eaten, and I haven't seen Kai all day. What's up with that?" Shrugs circulated the room as the Canadians quickly gave a run down of what the Japanese was saying.

"You know Kai, he's probably going to show up at ten and demand to know why we're all up." Rei answered, tilting his head to get a better view of the navy haired teen. "I wouldn't worry about it. What do you all want for dinner?"

"TAKOYAKI!" Takao instantly put in his request, and Rei looked awfully confused.

"I don't know what that is…" The Chinese wracked his brain for anything that remotely sounded like what the Japanese had said.

"It's kind of like breaded octopus balls." Trent explained, before looking over at the starving Japanese. "But in order to make takoyaki, you need a special appliance." Takao blushed.

"I knew that! We don't have it unfortunately…"

"Any other requests that can actually be made?" Rei inquired, and Max's hand quickly shot up.

"Pizza! I have been craving pizza forever!" The blond looked hopefully at the raven haired teen, who nodded his head.

"Didn't we have that a week ago?" Takao put in, looking over at his American companion. Max nodded.

"Ya, but we didn't have it Hawaiian style! That style's the BEST!" Rei was looking even more confused now.

"Hawaiian style? What's that?"

"You put pineapple on the pizza." Terry made a face as he explained the key ingredient. "I've never had it, but it just doesn't sound appetizing." Max was bouncing up and down, and Rei couldn't let down the American.

"Hawaiian style pizza it is. Perhaps we'll make pepperoni and cheese as well… and a few others to satiate the hunger of Takao." Said Japanese stuck out his tongue at this comment, and then went over to drag Rei to the kitchen. Trent followed, laughing slightly at the raven haired teen's misfortune.

"I can't wait! Hawaiian style pizza is my favourite style of pizza!" Max grinned and bounced on his knees in excitement.

"Pity, I don't quite favour Hawaiian myself." Both teens present in the room jumped slightly when they heard this.

"Oh! Hey Yuu, you really shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Terry wagged a finger at the taller teen as if to scold him. This only made him smirk.

"Sorry about that. I'll try to keep that in mind for the future." The other teen didn't seem to particularly care that Max was in no mood to talk with him. "So, I hear dinner's being ordered in tonight." Both Terry and Max looked at each other and then back at Yuuji. "From Pizza Hut or something, Rei sent me to ask what kind of sides you want. We can get wings, bread sticks, garlic bread…" The dark haired youth was counting off the different sides on his fingers, and he leaned up against the door frame to make himself more comfortable. "Apparently because we're ordering so much we get a discount or something. Trent hasn't phoned yet, but Rei's fished out a flyer from somewhere and they're congregating in the kitchen at the moment. Any special requests before they order?" Max shook his head, but Terry nodded.

"I'd like some barbecue wings please!" the bluenette grinned and put his hands together as if he was going to plead.

"Trent's already told us you'd want some… Max, are you sure you don't want anything? Last chance." Yuuji was already walking off and paused to look over his shoulder. The blond shook his head adamantly and watched as the older youth vanished from view after turning a corner.

There wasn't much to do between the time that the pizza was ordered and the time that the pizza arrived, so all of the teens gathered in the family room to wait. With seven teens all in the same room, they were just able to find enough space for everyone to sit down. Ojii-san had left to go see some kind of movie, so the teens were all by themselves. Not that they minded. When the pizza came, all the money they could find was scrounged up to pay for the delivery, and enough for a tip was just barely met. The teens decided that they'd eat in the family room for a change, and lounged while watching a TV movie that none of them really cared for. It was called "Zolar" and it was possibly the most cheesy movie that any of them had ever seen. Some blue alien lands, makes friends, gets taken away, friends defeat bad guys and all of them live happily ever after, the end. It wasn't very impressive to put things lightly, but it was a change from their regular routine. Usually they would still be training now, and Kyouju pointed out that none of them would have eaten yet.

Takao ended up sprawled on the floor after falling asleep partway through the movie and leaning onto Rei. The Chinese didn't quite enjoy the contact, and was able to gather help to allow him to push the Japanese off the couch. He didn't even wake up. Kyouju ended up on the floor next, as once Takao woke up, he quickly pulled down his friend. This resulted in a massive struggle for Kyouju, which Takao won, and it had many of the teens still on the couch sprawled over one another after having let go so suddenly. Max's arm was trapped under Rei's head, while the Chinese had Max's foot uncomfortably lodged in to his side. Yuuji was smugly perched on the arm of the couch, surveying the damage and keeping an eye on the TV screen, while Terry and Trent were trying to untangle themselves from the mess of pillows and body parts all over the couch. People were quite rumpled after this, and as soon as the movie ended all of the teens trudged off to go take a shower, or check that they had everything packed, or grab one final bite of food before bed. Five AM comes fast when you're not prepared. Rei advised that everyone put out a change of clothes for the following day, to be sure that they wouldn't have to dig through their bags at three or four in the morning. Max also (from experience) told whoever would listen to pack a set of clothing and toiletries for a day or two into a carry-on bag so that if their luggage was lost they would still be able to go on living fairly well. No one really commented on the disappearance of Kai at such an important time, as they all figured he would show up at the last minute. He always showed up at the last minute.

By the time that everyone had themselves organized for the next day, it was about nine or nine thirty, and sleeping arrangements had to be figured out. For the teens sleeping in one of the dojo rooms, anyway. Max refused to sleep anywhere near Yuuji, however the Canadian persisted in following the blond around wherever he went. This ended up in a frazzled Max, who convinced Rei to sleep on one side, and Terry on the other. Luckily for the blond, Trent was able to somehow get Yuuji to sleep on the other side of the room. Kyouju was staying over as well, and so he ended up being set up beside Terry, and Trent beside Rei. The bespeckled youth made sure to set Takao's alarm for four o'clock AM, and the teens sleeping in the dojo did the same. One way or the other, everyone was going to get up, and it didn't matter how.

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Please don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against people who are gay! I hope that no one took offense! Also, 'Zolar' is an actual TV movie, and I really wasn't that impressed with it... Anyway, 'till next update (hopefully!)


	9. On the Road Again

Hi!! I'm so sorry for the extended wait! Life kind of called, and I had to answer. I've run into quite a few of my own translation errors over the last few months, however I'm sure that's not what you came here to read (unless you clicked this by mistake, in which case you still wouldn't be here to read this). I'll cut this short, I hope it's decent, I wrote it at like... 12 AM on almost seven different occasions and edited it numerous times. I'm still not quite happy with it but meh...

Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material that may appear in this fiction, nor do I own Beyblade or any of the characters. The characters you do not recognize are mine, and are not to be used in any stories but mine unless otherwise stated.

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"Hey! He's got my hat! STOP THEIF!" Rei sighed as he lifted his eyes from a page in the newspaper. Takao was angrily swatting at Max who held the desired accessory just out of reach of the navy haired teen. Once again burying himself in the foreign text, the Chinese took a sip of tea and glanced over at the clock on the wall. Five after four in the morning, and the two usually non-morning-type teens were as lively as ever. The American was now giggling like mad and running around waving the hat mockingly over his head, as Takao gave chase, occasionally knocking over an unimportant piece of furniture. Rolling his eyes, the raven haired teen found himself thinking how immature his teammates could be. "Rei! Grab the hat while you still can!" Takao abruptly pulled the other teen from his thoughts with this yell, as Max went streaking by where the Asian sat. Smoothly sticking out a hand, Rei caught the blond by the back of his shirt and pulled him over.

"… Ow?" Max rubbed his sore bottom and gave a half-hearted glare at his Chinese teammate. "You shouldn't have even understood what that kid was saying!" Max said, receiving an annoyingly innocent looking expression from the raven haired teen. "Lucky guess…" was all the American muttered, before grudgingly surrendering the hat to its owner. "Where are the translators anyway?" This was wondered aloud and there was no answer expected, however it got one anyway.

"Well, I'm right here." Trent emerged, slightly rumpled looking, from the kitchen, yawning and stretching as he made his way over to the other teens. "I think Terry's taking a shower, Yuuji's messing with stuff in the room, Kyouju's… doing something, and Kai's no where to be found." After repeating this to the rest of the team, Trent collapsed next to the Chinese blader who had suddenly taken up new interest in the newspaper in front of him.

"Watch, Kai's probably going to show up just as we all leave in the taxi, then he's going to make this grand appearance just as the plane's about to leave, scaring the rest of us to death." Takao pouted as he said this, and moodily stuck his hat onto his head. Max nodded in agreement as soon as he understood what was being said.

"Probably." None of the teens even bothered to debate the fact that Kai had a thing for showing up last minute. It was always the same: think Kai's not coming, Kai comes almost as something is going to happen, cue annoyed teammates and frazzled organizers. The Bladebreakers had had a few low key matches to sharpen their skills, and Kai was always the last to show up for scheduled battles. It drove people nuts. Speaking of driving people nuts, Yuuji suddenly appeared in the doorway, looking as neatly turned out as the previous day and smug as all get out. The translator seated himself across the table from Rei and casually grabbed the newspaper from the Chinese teen's hands.

"Come now, we all know you can't understand a character of that…" This comment was treated with the most withering glare the raven haired teen could muster. The futile attempt only made the Canadian smirk. "Nice try though."

"I'm hungry." Everyone turned to see Takao seated quite comfortably in the middle of the available floor space of the dining room. Max immediately burst out laughing.

"That… that was so… random!" Over the few weeks, the blond had come to recognize the words in Japanese for "I'm hungry" because Trent was so often translating them. "But come to think of it… I haven't had anything to eat either." All eyes turned to Rei, who shook his head as if to scold them. He placed his head on his intertwined fingers before a mischievous grin settled on his features.

"I figured we could grab something at the airport, there is always some kind of food stall open." Takao groaned at this answer.

"So we don't get Rei's special home-made breakfast today? Too bad, I was looking forward to one. Everyone speaks so highly of them." Yuuji sighed and flipped the paper around so he could read it properly, not sounding particularly upset at all. "This is interesting…" Placing the paper down on the table, the Canadian examined the page more. "Looks like they've got a whole two pages dedicated to all of you. Very interesting facts as well… Stats, in depth profiles, my people are obsessed." At the mention of profiles, Takao instantly snatched the paper from the dark haired teen.

"Dude! My profile's so puny! Rei and Kai and Max all get larger ones!" The navy haired teen pouted as he held the paper up for inspection. "They even get better pictures!" He snorted and threw the pages onto the table again, which were eagerly snatched up by his American companion. "They sure get all the details one way or another." Huffing, the Japanese teen grabbed a seat beside Yuuji, and set his head onto the table, amusing himself by blowing his bangs out of his face. Trent was translating the pages to Max and Rei as the younger of the two eagerly pointed out things he wanted to know, and the teen sitting beside the translator listened in on the pieces of information. At that moment, Kyouju walked into the room and settled next to his navy haired companion, looking interestedly at the newspaper spread out on the other side of the table. Takao caught the brunette's eyes scanning the page, and looked somewhat hurt after not finding even a mention of his name. There was a sigh of disappointment before the brunette adjusted his glasses and pulled out his laptop, turning it on and waiting patiently for it to boot.

Nobody really felt like talking at the moment, and the only sound was Trent switching languages as he worked to help Rei and Max understand the text in the newspaper. Eventually, Terry joined the group of teens, his hair still wet from the shower. He sat beside Max, and translated the rest of the page to the American, letting Trent translate to Rei. Other than those two voices, the only sound was the clock ticking in the corner, and Kyouju's keyboard as he typed in new pieces of information he had read from the paper. Occasionally one of the teens would glance up at the clock, only to shake their head and go back to staring at nothing-ness. The paper was passed around the table, and Kyouju asked if certain pieces of information were true. After receiving an affirmative, he would carefully file away the information under the blader in question's name. There was relative silence, as everyone was somewhat sleepy still. Randomly a few of the teens would go to check that they had everything, before returning and maybe grabbing a snack bar or something. It was not very eventful, to say the least.

At around four thirty, Max noticed that Rei was eyeing his hair in such a manner as made the American uncomfortable, and he quickly hid behind the brunette translator sitting beside him. This ended up failing, as Trent decided that he was going to go get a snack, and left without another word. Rei finally broke the silence.

"Terry, would you tell Maecks that his hair is looking unusually rumpled today?" The Chinese had mischief written all over his face as he looked over at Terry, who quickly picked up the vibe.

"Max, Rei is telling you that your hair's an unacceptable mess of something, and I completely agree with him." The blue haired youth dodged a half-hearted swipe courtesy of his American companion. "You really should actually ATTEMPT to keep it under control man, it kind of looks like it exploded, or something exploded in it…" Another dodge was made necessary, though this time the translator caught the blonde's arm. "Seriously, I think you need help with that." Terry made a wide motion to Max's hair with the hand that wasn't holding the blonde's arm. "I think that Rei and I could clear that up for you, eh?" This time, the bluenette had to keep a firm hold on his attacker's arm as Max struggled valiantly to get his arm back. Rei quickly had Yuuji translate, and then nodded, a wide grin forming on his face. By now, Takao was feeling awfully left out, and so demanded that the darker haired Canadian give a short translation, which he did without protest.

"I could help too!" Takao chimed in, which caused the room to go silent for a few seconds, before laughter racked the other teens. It was at this moment that Trent decided to walk in, and looked fairly confused as he surveyed the scene.

"Did something funny happen?" he asked, looking around and hoping that someone would clue him in.

"Oh, it's nothing Tent, we'll just be off now" with that, Terry gave Rei a look, and both teens stood in unison, pulling Max up with them as they headed for the door.

"It's TRENT!" the brunette yelled, as the three teens had already started down the hall. Terry immediately popped his head back into the room.

"Okay Trent-chan" Terry quickly darted out before his brunette companion could strangle him to death. Takao laughed hard, as Kyouju sighed and shook his head, as if to ask 'why am I surrounded by idiots?' No one caught this gesture.

"Why'd he call you '-chan' Trent-san?" Takao asked, as the Canadian returned to the table after attempting to follow the bluenette. Yuuji cut in before the other Canadian had a chance to respond.

"Do you really want to know?" the dark haired Canadian asked, raising an eyebrow in the Japanese's direction; Takao nodded eagerly. Just as the Asian looking teen was opening his mouth, Trent dashed over and clamped a hand over it.

"It's because he's an idiot and he does stuff like that" Yuuji was looking up disappointedly at his captor who had answered calmly for himself. The brunette was currently giving his darker-haired equivalent an even glare that made the blood turn cold in Takao's vein's, and it wasn't even directed at him! Eventually, Takao joined Kyouju at his laptop, pretending to be half interested in the facts that the shorter brunette was typing out, as the air in the room tensed. Occasionally the bluenette would peek over the laptop to see that Trent had let go of the other Asian specialist, and was now sitting opposite said teen, still eyeing him warily. Yuuji, on the other hand, didn't seem at all phased by this, and was delivering his signature smile/smirk combination. Silence reigned, and no one seemed to mind that much.

As soon as Terry and Rei had dragged Max off, they had brought him into the washroom. Rei was left to guard the blond as Terry went off in search of proper 'hair taming' instruments. The American presently was seated on the toilet seat, moodily trying to run a hand through his hair as Rei sat opposite him on the bath rim. The Chinese was grinning to himself, one of those award-winning smiles he always seemed to be able to produce. It didn't lighten Max's mood. Not that he was in a very bad mood, mind you, he just didn't see the point of this escapade. It wasn't too much later that Terry returned, bottle of hair gel on hand, and various combs and brushes packed neatly into a bag. Max stared long and hard at the bag before looking up at the youth holding it.

"… Why do you have so many brushes and combs?" the American asked, eyeing the bag suspiciously. He reckoned that not even a girl had quite so many different detanglers.

"I'm the youngest of four… and I'm the only guy." Terry answered, looking quite sheepish as he said so. "My sisters buy me this stuff and force it on me, seriously!" Max didn't quite buy this answer, however he let it slide. Rei didn't seem to care that much, and was quite confused as to what the significance of having many combs and brushes had to do with what gender you were. He immediately grabbed one of the larger ones and set to work.

The American was surprised, no matter how tangled his tresses were, the two teens working on him seemed not to encounter any problems. Rei gently coaxed the mats, tangles and knots to come out, working efficiently with the different brushes and combs provided to him. While sitting there, Max didn't really feel anything except a slight tug now and then. It didn't hurt, Rei made sure of that. After a few minutes, Max found himself thinking that perhaps keeping better care of his hair wouldn't be quite so hard. The Chinese currently wrestling with a knot had much longer hair, and he managed to keep it under wraps, figuratively and literally. A few more minutes passed, and Max's hair was tangle free, however still very much sticking up in many directions. Both teens working on Max's hair agreed that they would attempt to use water first, before using gel. This proved to be a fine route, as with a little encouragement, and a lot of water, the blonde's hair finally calmed down, and stayed down. With a little bit of styling, the American found himself looking at himself in awe, as Rei and Terry beamed with success.

It had taken a few minutes, but it was definitely worth it. Max's hair now lay straight and flat, neatly brushed off to the side of his face, and not plastered down. Miraculously, no gel was needed to keep the tresses at bay, and they hadn't had to re-soak the American's head either. He was immediately pushed and prodded out by his hair dressers, who wanted so much to go show off their accomplishment.

"You know, Yuuji's probably going to love you looking like this." Rei teased, poking his American companion in the arm. Max shivered.

"Don't you dare say that" the blond warned, trying hard not to think about that. He was about to say something more, but before the American could say another word, they were at the doorway of the dining room and surveying the scene in front of them. Takao and Kyouju were sitting looking over something on the shorter brunette's laptop, while Trent was seated across from his darker haired equivalent, not looking particularly pleased. Said teen didn't seem at all perturbed, and was coolly returning the look. Terry and Rei knocked on the door in unison, causing Kyouju to jump in fright, Takao to turn around startled, and Trent and Yuuji to turn their attention to the doorway.

"May we present, the newly re-made, Max!" Terry said grinning, as Rei pushed the blond into view. Almost the entire room gasped.

"Mm… You look very cute that way. Adorable." Yuuji, as expected, commented positively on the new hairstyle. The dark haired teen rested his head on his hand so as to get a better view of the blond. Max attempted glaring at him, to which the older teen simply smirked at.

"What did they do to you?" Takao blurted, still kind of staring at his teammate in shock. "I mean, not that it looks bad or anything, it's just that I-" The navy haired teen was cut off by Trent.

"It looks very good." He completed Takao's sentence for him, whether that was what the Japanese teen intended to say or not. Said Japanese was being shut-up by his bespeckled friend.

"Are you going to keep it that way?" Kyouju asked, facing the blond and tilting his head to the side. Max wasn't quite sure he liked being the centre of attention, however compliments were always welcomed.

"I don't know." Was all the American answered, and he hastily grabbed a seat next to Kyouju, as it was the farthest from a certain translator. Rei plunked himself down across from Max so as to admire his handy-work, and Terry instantly grabbed the seat beside Trent.

After a few moments, Kyouju's eyes suddenly went wide as he surveyed the clock on his monitor. "Guys! Guys, we have five minutes 'till five and Kai still isn't here!" Most of the group shrugged it off.

"You know Kai, he's probably going to show up just as the plane's about to leave." Max sighed, shrugging his shoulders to emphasize he really didn't care. The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to jump on the plane just as it was about to take off or something." Takao put in, huffing slightly and crossing his arms in a childish manner. Yuuji gave the Japanese teen a look before snatching the hat off of said bluenette's head. He examined it for a few seconds, before casually switching it with Trent's cap, roughly pulling it onto each teen's head simultaneously. There was a small silence as Yuuji surveyed both of the teens, then tilted it to the side, resting it on a few fingers. Confused looks went around the room as the dark haired teen's eyes narrowed for a moment, before sighing and shaking his head, grabbing Trent's hat off of Takao's head.

"It just doesn't look good on you." The darker haired translator said simply to Takao, holding the hat in the hand that wasn't supporting his head. "Trent doesn't look too bad in yours though…" This was said teasingly, as a smirk started forming on the teen's lips. Trent immediately took the cap off and threw it over to Takao, who was thoroughly insulted. The navy haired teen moodily grabbed the ball cap off the table and stuck it back on his head, glaring slightly at Yuuji. The silence was suffocating, and then… Someone knocked on the door.

The reaction was slightly delayed, though eventually everyone finally worked their way through the fact that it was now five o'clock, and someone was knocking on the door. There was a mad rush as people scrambled over one another to get to the hallway, and all of the teens practically fell on Keiichiro as soon as the door was opened.

"Good morning?" The man asked, taking a step back so that he could suitably catch Takao as the Japanese teen fell forward from excitement. "I see you're all… up and about. If a little over zealous." The navy haired teen blushed madly as he quickly swatted the older man's arms away. "I trust everything is going smoothly?" the teens looked at one another, then burst out laughing, causing the man in front of them to look puzzled.

"It couldn't be anything farther from!" Max managed to choke out, as he and the rest of the teens calmed themselves down.

"I guess you could call it organized chaos?" Kyouju suggested, gesturing to the mess of newspaper, knocked over furniture and snack bar wrappers littered all over the room down the hall.

"I guess you could." Keiichiro agreed, as he surveyed the explosion with amusement. "Have you all packed everything?" There were nods from all the teens. "Good, the limo is here to pick you all up, you'll be travelling with me to the airport. I know I said that Daitenji-san and I would be meeting you there, however he sent me to pick you up." He had a sort of hurried air about him, so the teens obediently grabbed their bags and ran out to the limo parked in the driveway.

"Oh WOW!" Rei seemed most unlike himself as he surveyed the vehicle parked in Takao's driveway. The other teens were also in awe, however not quite to the degree of the Chinese. Said teen tried extremely hard to cover up his very Out-Of-Character moment by putting his luggage in the trunk, however the chauffeur did not approve of this.

"I'll do that sir," The elderly gentleman said gently, guiding Rei through the door so he could sit down.

Kyouju was looking at the vehicle in a more mechanical point of view, and his ogling was mostly because the piece of machinery in front of him was state-of-the-art and yet elegant. Gradually, all of the teens were guided in to the vehicle, and Keiichiro shut the door beside them with an experienced hand. It clicked closed, and it was only then that the reality of their situation hit the teens sitting in the back. They were actually on their way to Hong Kong for a beyblading tournament. This wasn't just a dream, it was actually happening.

As soon as Keiichiro hopped into the limo and closed his door, the driver started the engine, and within a matter of seconds Takao's house was no longer in view. Kyouju sat to the side, clutching his laptop in his lap. The driver had attempted to take the laptop away from the brunette, to safely pack it away into one of the car's compartments, however the teen had refused and, since he was the client, he got his way. Takao was sitting beside his brunette friend, attempting to look out the window and fidgeting with excitement, much to the dismay of the darkest haired translator sitting beside him. Yuuji was not expressing his annoyance in any dramatic way, however Max could tell how much the translator hated the physical contact. He didn't have quite as smooth an air about him as he attempted to move away, leaning heavily on the side door. It made the blonde smirk, as the teen was obviously still trying to act like he was in charge of the situation even though it was quite glaringly out of his control.

Max was sitting opposite Yuuji, much to the blonde's annoyance. When Yuuji wasn't paying attention to how close Takao was getting to him, he was surveying Max with bored sort of eyes. This annoyed the American, and he quickly switched seats with Rei after a few minutes. However, the action didn't improve the situation at all, and Yuuji ended up simply following the blond with his eyes. Terry and Trent were seated next to each other, with Trent on the door side and Terry comfortably between Max (once he had moved) and his brunette companion. There wasn't any talking at all, just a few snippets of the conversation from up front between Keiichiro and the driver.

"So, how are all of you getting along?" Keiichiro asked, breaking the relative silence behind him and attempting to look back at the teens. The driver quickly popped a backseat viewing mirror from the dashboard so that the translator would not have to strain his neck.

"Well enough." Rei shrugged, and the rest of the teens nodded mutely.

"How has Sorata-san been? Has he been causing any sort of problems? Would you rather a different young man?" the man seemed genuinely concerned about the team's opinions on the most recent translator, and if it was possible, the teens got even quieter. Yuuji didn't seem at all phased by the question, and had finally switched his attention to out the window, much to a certain American's relief.

"It's been… Interesting?" Rei provided again, looking around for any sort of support.

"Indeed, it has…" Trent muttered, more to himself than to anyone else. Max made a face.

"Could you tell him to stop looking at me like that? It's kind of creeping me out." The American had to speak, as the dark haired Canadian had resumed watching him. It took a few seconds for Keiichiro to process this before he took a good look at the blond himself.

"Did you do something with your hair?" He asked, completely side-tracking the conversation, though no one really paid attention to that.

"Yes sir, Rei and I restyled it. Doesn't he look good?" Terry was beaming as he enthusiastically pointed out his and Rei's handy work. There was a pause, as Keiichiro took another look at the blond. It was very uncomfortable for the American in question, as it was at that time that he realized how much Keiichiro resembled Yuuji, or the other way around.

"It's quite a change you've made there." The older translator said, nodding his head. Trent seemed to suddenly notice something himself, and gave Terry a look that read 'I think I know what you tried to do with his hair,' if it's possible for looks to say that.

(1) "Est-ce que tu coiffes les cheveux?" Trent asked, nodding in Max's direction.

(2) "Oui! Et Rei aussi, il est un tres bon coiffeur n'est-ce pas?" Max strained to understand the small conversation that the translators had, however the only really distinguishable word was "Oui", which meant, "Yes"… or something like that.

(3) "Oui, vous etes les meilleurs coiffeurs. Terry, Max se ressemble un garcon je connais…" Yuuji trailed off there, though he was obviously thinking something more. The dark haired Canadian put his elbow on the windowsill of the limo and rested his head on his hand so as to get a better view out the window. Keiichiro cleared his throat quite loudly after this comment, and then gave as stern a look as he could to the backseat mirror.

"May I remind you that you are here to translate to those young men beside you, and not to socialize?" Keiichiro was all business as he watched the translators shrink somewhat.

"Sorry Makimoto-san, I started it… Its just second nature I suppose." Trent gave an embarrassed sort of laugh as he looked as honest as he could. There was a sort of awkward silence, which was quickly filled by the driver saying something to Keiichiro. The translator then relayed the message as the limo stopped.

"We're here," he said simply, and the teens looked out in surprise to find that, while they had been talking, they had arrived at the airport. There was also another, not quite so pleasant surprise waiting for them.

"Fan girls" Rei muttered, as the squealing mass advanced.

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Translation Error(s)

(1) "Did you style his hair?" Trent asks the obvious, and if you didn't pick it up, when he says "his hair" he means Max's. The more literal translation of this would be "Did you style the hairs?" which is kind of a strange wording.

(2) "Yes! And Rei also, he is a very good hairdresser, is he not?" … Such a pointless little conversation. Why in the world are they trying to hide this?

(3) "Yes, you are the best hairdressers. Terry, Max resembles a boy I know…" Is anyone remotely curious as to whom Max reminds Yuuji of? Does anyone have any guesses? Absolute admiration to the first person that can correctly guess who Yuuji keeps talking about!

If I've made any mistakes with my French, please don't hesitate to tell me! I am, after all, relying just on what I learn in school, which is not very much by the way. Hope it was half-decent, and if it wasn't constructive critiszm is always welcomed. 'Till next update!


	10. Confusion and Lost Persons

Hey everyone!

I'm soooo sorry for the extremely huge delay in posts and things. I've even gotten sloppy on replying to reviews! Anyway, this chapter came from some personal experiances (Tim Hortons, gotta love it!) Thanks for being so patient with me about this, and thank you to everyone who bothered to review! Much appreciated!

Absolute admiration goes to KrymsonDranzer (I hope I spelled it right) who guessed correctly who Yuuji is always talking about. I have to figure out a suitable prize... Any ideas would be welcomed. For those of you who still haven't figured it out, hang tight - the answer's coming.

Discliamer: I do not own Beyblade, or any other copyrighted material that may find it's way into this story. I do, however, own the idea of this fiction. Any characters you do not recognize are mine, and are not to be used unless otherwise stated.

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There was a sudden silence inside the limo as the teens inside sat, taking in the scene. Girls had swarmed the basement entranceway to the airport, and people were blocked from getting in or out. Many were holding signs, others were simply holding pens and pads of paper, hoping for signatures. Takao was grinning, and basically crawling over Yuuji to get a better look out the window, much to the translator's disgust. Kyouju, on the other hand, was cowering as far away as possible, and taking small, fleeting glances out the window as he dared. Too. Many. Girls. Just way _way _too many for the poor brunette to process or deal with. They may not have been there for him, but they were there none-the-less. People stopped and stared at the screeching mob that hindered traffic, and the entrance. It was unbelievable, the team hadn't even really made a proper appearance as a team to the public, and yet girls had already picked up the tid-bit and squeezed as much out as possible. A sigh from the front of the car was heard, as Keiichiro picked up his cell phone and waited patiently for it to ring while he looked out the window of the front seat.

"Hello? Is this airport security? This is Makimoto Keiichiro, yes, that's right… Of course, I understand. I'm sorry for the inconvenience; I assure you we had no hand in this. Yes…" The conversation went on, as some girls in the crowd approached the limo tentatively. The chauffeur looked at the teens in the backseat, gave them all a once over, and then shook his head.

"In all my years, I've never seen such a fuss made over a bunch of boys your age. How are you feeling lads?" The old man looked somewhat concerned as he said this, and the teens were touched he seemed to care about them. Everyone (save for Takao) was slightly apprehensive about the thought of having to leave the vehicle, and they made it known. Girls were approaching at a steady pace, and the driver manoeuvred the limo a few more feet away to keep them from making contact too soon.

There was a click as Keiichiro flipped his phone shut, and he explained that the team would have to wait a few moments, as the airport security would soon come to make a safe way through the crowd. There was a collective sigh of relief from everyone, even the limo driver, as men in uniform flooded out of the entrance to contain the group. Barriers were put in place, and men stood every few feet to make sure that no one went past them. The chauffeur was first the leave the vehicle, followed by Keiichiro, and together they opened the doors to let the teens out. Instantly, the screeching went up a notch, and Rei winced as the sound proof door was opened in front of him. The tinted windows had made the light seem so much dimmer, and to suddenly be thrown into reality was… well, rude. Takao nearly tumbled out of the car, having been basically leaning on the door to get a good view out the window, and was only saved from making a face plant by the fact that Max (at the last moment) grabbed the back of his shirt. Yuuji gave an annoyed "Watch it!" as Takao nearly poked his eye out flailing for balance, and then he fell right back on top of the translator as Max had let go. (The danger of Takao doing a face plant had ceased to exist, therefore, why hold on any longer?) The translator used Takao's momentum to simply flip the bluenette right out of the limo, so that he landed, hard, on his butt. Rei instantly backed away from the door that he had just been about to exit from, however the fact that Takao had gone flying out of it a few seconds before had discouraged him from doing so.

"Ladies first." The translator said calmly, motioning for Rei to exit next. The Chinese teen gave him a withering look, growled slightly, then hopped out of the limo to join Takao outside. People went nuts.

A quick look around told the teens that there were more than just fans here. People with film crews and microphones were lined up along the barrier too, shouting things at the teens as they exited the limo. Takao was grinning from ear to ear, and couldn't contain his excitement. He bounded along the barriers waving and nodding at fans, signing things (though most of them did not want his signature), and answering the occasional question. The other team members stuck with a translator, and Kyouju cowered behind his over zealous friend. The translators had their work cut out for them, as the whole crowd was yelling things simultaneously at them, and the team members. News reporters were asking questions on how they felt about getting thrown into the working world at such a young age, while others were sceptical the boys would be able to do their job properly because of the closeness in age. Keiichiro ended up taking most of those questions, as he ushered the teens along at a fairly quick pace. They all managed to get inside the airport without any problems, and they quickly processed their tickets and made their way through security.

There was constant hustle and bustle as people hurried to catch their plane, or grab some food, or chat with someone before leaving. Many were on cell phones, talking loudly to try and make themselves heard above the rest. The teens looked around, examining the area and checking out the food court. There were souvenir shops for people to do last minute shopping before leaving, and stands that sold everything from liquor to chocolate and milkshakes. Terry gave a sigh as he surveyed the area, a kind of sad look on his features.

"There's no Tim Hortons" the bluenette stated, glancing around and shaking his head. "I should have known… but I was really hoping…" he trailed off kind of disappointedly, before shaking his head and sighing again. The other teens were looking at him perplexed. "You don't know about Tim Hortons? Oh you poor, deprived children…" This comment caused more looks of confusion, and a few strange looks.

"It's a coffee shop in Canada, and it's really popular. Tim Horton was a hockey player; it's named after him. Tim's is like the staple of Canadian society I guess, everyone's gone there at least once. If you ask for directions to the nearest shop, even if you're in the middle of nowhere, people will make sure you get there." Trent explained, giving his bluenette companion a look that read 'don't bring up subjects you know for sure they won't know about, you idiot.' The bluenette teen just grinned at him.

"So… It's kind of like Starbucks then?" Max asked, looking from one Canadian to the other. Trent sort of half nodded in response before Yuuji cut in.

"You could say, but Starbucks is really not as popular. Krispy Kream was run out of Canada because everyone preferred Tim Hortons donuts, if you'll believe me." Max went wide-eyed at this comment.

"There's no possible way that could have happened. You're lying, right? It's all just a joke? That's absolutely impossible!" He watched as all three Canadians solemnly shook their heads. "There's no way!" The American was in denial now, as he carefully surveyed each teen to see if he could find any sign they were lying. Takao, Rei and Kyouju were silently watching the exchange, not understanding most of it (even though it was getting translated) and not trying to either.

"It's true, and if my word is not good enough, then perhaps you should go visit up north sometime." All of the teens jumped as they realized Keiichiro was standing right behind them. The man had a cup of what they assumed to be coffee in his hand, and a bagel in the other. He was surveying the blonde teen with amusement as he took another sip of his drink. "So, do you believe us or not?" he asked, raising an eyebrow slightly to show he was expecting an answer.

"Well, I… You… uhm… oohhhhhh…" Max had a look of complete concentration on as he thought through the facts that had been provided to him. There couldn't have been another shop that beat out Krispy Kream, it was not possible! But then again, Keiichiro had even said it was true. "I… guess…?" the American choked out, and he suddenly felt out numbered. "Hey wait a sec… have you ever been to Canada?" the thought hit him as he looked over the man. Keiichiro definitely looked Japanese, there was no doubt about it. But if he was born and raised in Japan, he couldn't have possibly known about Tim Hortons, right?

"I was born in Japan, but I have family in Canada so I visit often" the man explained, as if he had read the American's mind. "A lot of my relatives had already moved there way before I was born. My immediate family moved in with them when I got out of high school, but I decided to stay here."

"Don't you miss your family?" Rei asked suddenly. He had left home for a short time, but he was already missing his family and friends and was sorely looking forward to going back, even just for a short while. Keiichiro sort of half smiled as he looked over the Chinese teen.

"Sometimes, but I see a little every time I go away" This comment was met with perplexed looks as the teens puzzled over what the man could have meant. He was obviously not going to be saying much more on the matter, and Rei sort of regretted bringing up the subject as Keiichiro now looked slightly sad. There was, however, no time for reminiscing as a female voice suddenly boomed over the loud speakers, announcing the arrival of the teens' plane.

There was pushing, shoving, and a few curses as the teens made their way through the airport to the proper terminal. They said a short good-bye at the entrance to the plane, as Keiichiro left them in the care of a female flight attendant by the name of Ayumi. She ushered them along through the aisle, and opened a door halfway through the plane to reveal a completely empty seating area. The seats were arranged slightly differently than the ones before. Instead of rows of three lining each side of the aisle, there were rows of two, and more spaced apart. Luggage holds were more spacious, and there were a few tables bolted to the floor with seats facing them.

"This is your area. You will have it all to yourself, so please, make yourself comfortable." The lady bowed, and said: "Your flight attendant will be with you shortly." With that she exited through the door to the previous seating area.

"Wow, we get this whole place to ourselves?" Takao couldn't believe it, and he quickly pinched himself to make sure it was real.

"I guess so, Daitenji-san sure must be confident in you if he's willing to spend this much money." Kyouju put in, glancing around slightly unbelievingly. The sound of a door opening was heard at the end of the aisle, and the teens looked up to come face to face with someone they thought they'd left behind.

"Good morning!" The teens gaped slightly as they surveyed the person who had come through the door at the other end. He gave them a warm smile and bowed deeply. "How are you?"

"… You… wait… we… how?" Max stuttered, looking over the man with confusion written clearly on his face.

"Didn't you just say bye to us?" Takao blurted, staring slightly before closing and rubbing his eyes for a second and opening them again. "I don't think I'm hallucinating…"

"You're not." Rei confirmed, though obviously not believing it himself. With good reason. Standing in front of the teens was Keiichiro. Again. The man now had a slightly quizzical look on his face, as he watched the teens give him quite a few looks over.

"Pardon?" he asked, raising an eyebrow slightly as he surveyed the teens.

"When did you get the chance to change Makimoto-san?" Takao asked, for now the man was wearing a flight attendant uniform instead of his normal suit.

"This morning when I got up." He teased, though still looking slightly perplexed. It was then that the light suddenly seemed to go on, and he gave them an understanding nod. "Oh! I get it!"

"Get what?" Terry inquired, kind of confused and definitely lost.

"You're that new team that Daitenji-san was putting together, right? My brother helps to translate for you, so you must think I'm him!" The man looked fairly proud of himself as he explained this thought to the teens. There was silence. The man in front of them was like an exact clone of Keiichiro, hair, build, voice and all. Of course, that was assuming that this man really was another person, and not just Keiichiro trying to pull a fast one on them. "I get that all the time, my name's Makimoto Makoto, I'm Keiichiro's older brother." More shock, more silence, and a huge heaping of disbelief. This guy couldn't possibly be the older brother, the two of them looked exactly alike!

"Uh, well, hi?" Max managed to choke out, his voice practically lost from shock. Today was just one thing after another. First the fan girls, next the Krispy Kream fiasco, and now this! It was almost too much to handle. Takao was busy rambling on to himself like a crazy person, and Kyouju looked just about ready to fall over from the surprise. The translators seemed to be conferencing on something, casting glances every-so-often at the man who was supposedly a different person than the one they'd left behind. And Rei? He was sort of out of it at the moment, looking around like a lost child who had just realized he couldn't see his mom anymore. Ayumi chose this moment to pop her head back into the room. She took one look around, and then gave Makoto a stern glare.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop rolling up your sleeves? It's unprofessional, and do up your jacket!" Ayumi locked eyes with the man standing in front of her, and she steadily held his gaze. Makoto was the one who broke eye contact first.

"Alright, alright, you win! I can't do both though, it'll be too hot! If I roll down my sleeves, can I at least keep my jacket undone?" Makoto wined slightly as he unrolled the sleeves of his jacket and blouse, before re-doing the cuff links. Another annoyed look told him he could _not _keep his jacket undone, so he grudgingly snapped that up too. "Happy?" He asked, holding out his arms to show the sleeves down and the jacket done up.

"Decent enough." Was the answer, as the woman retreated back to the other compartment. As soon as she was out of sight, Makoto instantly began to undo his cuff links, and snapped open the jacket.

"It's too hot here in Japan, I don't know how you can stand it. Is Keiichiro still set on wearing a suit no matter what the weather? He's going to melt one of these days." Makoto put his hands on his hips and shook his head. It was becoming apparent that either Keiichiro was an excellent actor (they couldn't be sure, they hadn't known him for long), or this was the real deal. It was also just as unbelievable that this man (if he really was who he said he was) was Keiichiro's older brother, since he seemed more laid back and slightly immature. As the teens digested this, Makoto gave them a good once over, and smiled. "You all seem to be very smart young men, is it really that hard to believe I'm related to Keiichiro?"

"It's not so much that we don't believe you're related, it's just hard to believe you're different people?" Rei tried to explain, which caused Makoto to look amused.

"There are subtle differences, that is, if you pay attention." He grinned slightly and crossed his arms. "No one's been able to figure it out yet. If you do, I'll be amazed. Not even our parents have been able to tell us apart by appearance alone." There was a sort of challenge in the man's words, and the teens decided that it was worth a try to find the difference. It was certainly going to be interesting, though.

Takao scrutinized the man from head to toe, looking for even the slightest change in appearance. His hair was the same colour, swept off in the same manner as Keiichiro's, and layered the same way. There was no difference in eye colour or facial features at all. He even had the same stance when he stood with his arms crossed. If it weren't for the fact they were wearing different clothes, the teens were sure that it would be impossible to figure out who was who. There were many thoughtful faces and squinted eyes, as the teens surveyed the man in excruciating detail. They came up with nothing. So focussed where they on their task, that they almost didn't hear the announcement over the loudspeaker that the plane would be leaving shortly. It took a few moments to hit them that they were missing something.

"Kai!" Terry looked over the team members standing around, and he quickly pointed out the missing part, the team captain.

"Kai's still not here? The plane's about to leave! He can't just not come, right? Right?" Kyouju seemed be slightly panicked by this development, and the teens suddenly realized what leaving without Kai meant.

"There won't be any team captain, so what?" Takao asked, shrugging his shoulders and looking like he couldn't care less.

"So… We won't have enough team members to qualify, and we won't be able to get into the tournament. Plus, since we don't have our team captain, the team is null-and-void anyway." Rei explained calmly, though still looking slightly worried. "If we don't find him, there's no point in going through with the flight." Takao's eyes went huge.

"Okay, so we've gotta find him guys! This isn't just about Kai, this is about the whole team!" He quickly started heading for the door, before getting stopped by Trent.

"You can't just leave the plane without any explanation, it'll just take off without you as well. There's no point in losing more team members than you need to." The brunette kept a firm hold on Takao's shoulder as he explained this. As they spoke, Makoto listened in on the conversation, before raising a hand as if to answer a question in class.

"If I may, I could try and bargain for a little while longer while you search for your teammate. It shouldn't be so hard to since Daitenji-san is sponsoring this flight. Give me a second, would you?" The man instantly headed for the cockpit of the plane. A few minutes passed, before the teens heard the captain's voice over the loudspeaker once again to announce the flight would be delayed until further notice. There were groans from the other side of the door, as the people sitting there realized that "until further notice" meant "we don't know when we're going to take off." Makoto emerged from the cockpit, looking fairly pleased with himself as he walked over to join the teens again.

"Here's the deal, you guys get as much as an hour and a half, make good use of it. Daitenji-san has already sent some people out to find… what was his name? Kay?"

"It's Kai" Rei corrected, and Makoto shrugged his shoulders to show he didn't care.

"Whatever. He still thinks you should probably go out and look for this guy, maybe he'll listen to you. Anyway, Keiichiro is apparently still in the airport so he'll help you look for…. Kai too. I'll wait here, if he shows up I'll call Keiichiro. Agreed?" The teens couldn't argue with that, it was the best they could do in their situation right now. Yuuji instantly won the vote to be left behind in case Kai showed up and translations needed to be done. No one particularly wanted to be paired off with him when they were going to go search.

Makoto brought them as far as the front door where Keiichiro stood waiting, before leaving to go back to the plane. The teens were then ushered on to a public transit bus that was ready to depart, nearly getting spotted by random fans that had stuck around the airport. There was a slight scramble, but everyone managed to get on without incident.

"So, Hiwatari-san's decided not to show up eh?" Keiichiro asked, surveying the team in front of him. The teens nodded.

"He hasn't been around since Yuuji showed up. You think that he chased him off?" Terry asked, and Trent made a face.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he was the cause of the team captain's mysterious disappearance…" was all Rei heard the brunette mutter. Trent didn't say another word, instead fixing his gaze on Keiichiro who happened to be standing in front of him. The man shifted slightly, frowning as the teen continued to survey him.

"Is there something wrong Amai-san?" Keiichiro asked, trying to figure out what was quite so interesting about him. The teen shook his head, taking one last glance at the man's collar before changing the topic.

"Where are we headed?" He inquired, catching almost everyone off guard.

"To the area around Beyblade Corp. We're going to see if Kai's there, before branching out to search the surrounding area. Our people have already scoured the area around the airport and Kinomiyou-san's house. The only other area we haven't tried yet is around Beyblade Corp. and we're still only guessing that he'd be sticking around there… Tokyo's a big place, and for someone who is so well read with back-ways and alleys, he'll be hard to find." As he explained this, Keiichiro pulled the string that was hanging overhead to signal he wished to stop.

The bus slowed down at the next shelter, stopping abruptly and groaning as the driver eased open the doors. Beyblade Corp.'s building towered over the bustling streets of Tokyo, still flashing video from the qualifying tournament. Takao averted his gaze, knowing all too well what kind of footage was being shown to the rest of the public as he hurried by. A few men in suits stood outside of the large office building, one holding a briefcase, another holding two, and the rest standing guard around them. The teens instantly recognized one of the briefcases as Keiichiro's, and Rei noticed that the man holding it was the guard who had chased him off the day of the first team meeting. The man smiled apologetically at the Chinese teen, before turning his attention to Keiichiro.

"Makimoto-san! We were wondering if something had happened to you…" He trailed off, and it seemed he was too worried to finish the sentence. The rest of the guards snickered.

"He's really the only one who's been worried, we knew that you'd be fine. I mean, what could have happened that you wouldn't have been able to take control of?" one of the guards piped up, still snickering. Keiichiro gave him a disapproving look, and he instantly shut up.

"I'm quite fine, I assure you Mamoru-san. In any case, I'm just the translator, you should really be worrying about Daitenji-san." This caused a huge reaction from all the guards.

"_Just_ the translator? Are you kidding? You're like Daitenji-san's closest employee, and you know how he feels about all of his employees anyway. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if anything happened to you, or any of us for that matter!" The guards nodded their head in agreement at this comment, and Keiichiro frowned slightly.

"I'd love to continue this conversation, but I believe that we need to look for Hiwatari-san. Mamoru-san, may I please have my briefcase?" The guard instantly handed over the desired piece of baggage, and Keiichiro snapped it open to reveal a few sets of walkie-talkies. "We'll split up into groups of two, every team takes a walkie-talkie. If you find Hiwatari-san, notify the others immediately. Every team must have one translator on it, and we'll meet back here once we've found what we're looking for. Is that clear?" The teens nodded, quickly splitting up into pairs. Max went with Terry, Trent with Rei, and Takao and Kyouju were paired with Keiichiro. The guards were split into groups of three, and were sent out to the surrounding area. They were told to look for a teen with dual toned blue hair, a long scarf and blue triangles painted on his face. The teens were then sent out in different directions, each with a map of the area (courtesy of Keiichiro) and with specific instructions to return back if the hour and a half expired and no Kai was found.

"Kai, you'd so better show up…" Max muttered, as he and Terry set off to find the elusive team captain.

-----

Well, this is certainly taking a long time... heheheh... I'll try and speed things up, but ya... The whole thing about Tim Hortons is exactly what happened when I was talking to people from other countries. All the Canadians were raving about Tim Hortons, and we even convinced some Americans to come up north to try some! Any constructive critisizm is welcomed, I really want to know how to improve! 'Till next post!


	11. You Think You Know Him?

Hey! I'm back, sorry about the wait. I'm swamped with assignments and exams and junk like that, but I got an idea and I just had to go with it, because I've had artist's block for the longest time now. Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who's ever bothered to review this fic, it means a lot to me! Also, drop me a line and tell me which two OCs you'd like in a "Thanks for 100 Reviews!" picture, which I hope to get up some time within the next few months... I know that doesn't sound all that encouraging, but anyway... This update's a little longer than my other ones, so I'll stop rambling now!

Disclaimer: The same as always, I don't own any copyrighted names that may appear in this fic. The only things I own are my OCs, and this idea for a fic. Please don't steal them!

----

Yuuji was bored. Really, really bored. He was so bored, that he didn't know quite what to do with himself. The teen was stuck sitting in the first class area with no American to amuse him. It sucked, to say the least. Ayumi had left the plane in order to go help in the search for Kai in the airport, while Makoto was simply making busy work for himself. The man was stuffing the team's carry-on luggage into an overhead compartment when Yuuji piped up.

"You know, the kids on this team aren't exactly that bright. They won't be able to find their luggage if you do that." He pointed out, shifting his view from out the window to the man halfway down the aisle.

"Really? Well then, that makes it all the more amusing for me." Makoto gave the knapsack he was holding one last push, before swiftly shutting the compartment door. He nodded to himself before walking over to the teen currently sitting beside a window. "Yuuji-san, right?" The dark haired teen looked up at the man standing off to the side, and furrowed his brow.

"I don't remember introducing myself to you."

"Well… It was _really_ hard to put two and two together when all the guys on the team were saying 'Let's leave Yuuji behind…'" Makoto teased, smirking in a way that was eerily like the teen's own.

"Right…" The dark haired translator sighed, remembering how the other teens had basically leapt at the opportunity to leave him behind.

"Anyway, how're you?"

"Pretty good. And yourself?"

"Excellent! I'm looking forward to seeing my brother on this afternoon's flight, I haven't been able to talk to him in a while." Makoto looked genuinely excited by the prospect, and it wouldn't have surprised Yuuji if the man had started to skip down the aisle of the airplane because of that. There was a pause as the two heard Ayumi's voice on the other side of the door, assuring a customer that they were doing all that was in their power to get the plane in the air. "Is she back already?" Yuuji watched as a surprised look settled over Makoto's features as he listened on. "… She sounds annoyed." This comment caused the teen sitting near him to raise an eyebrow.

"Oh? Well to me she sounded like she genuinely cared about the customer." Yuuji stated, obviously doubting the man's words. The flight attendant was given no time to respond as the sound of the doorknob rattling became apparent. Hurriedly, he unrolled his sleeves, did up the cufflinks, and no sooner had he snapped up his jacket than Ayumi opened the door.

"Ah! Keiichiro-san, aren't you supposed to be looking for Hiwatari-san?" The flight attendant looked over the man in front of her, cocking her head to the side questioningly. Makoto didn't look at all taken-aback by this comment, and he quickly composed himself.

"Tsukishiro-san! It's good to see you again. I was searching the airport, but Makoto insisted we switch. He probably just wanted to get out of the plane, but you know how he is about these things…" The man rolled his eyes and looked pointedly at the woman. She nodded her head in an understanding manner.

"I know what you mean. Just a little earlier I had to tell him to compose himself properly. You wouldn't believe the way that man wears his uniform!" Ayumi frowned and crossed her arms. "I just wish that he'd take a page from your book and look respectable once and a while." By now, Yuuji was snickering silently as he watched Makoto try to look apologetic.

"I'm so sorry that my brother's been causing you problems Tsukishiro-san, I'll try to talk some sense in to him when he gets back, but he's so stubborn sometimes!" There was such a sincere look on the man's face as he said this, that Yuuji almost lost his composure.

"It's really not your fault Keiichiro-san, you didn't choose to be related to him. I know that you're trying your best given the circumstances." Ayumi's attention was quickly taken away from Makoto as she heard a voice on the other side of the door calling for service. She groaned, shot Makoto a look that clearly stated she wanted to be somewhere else, then headed out the door to go check on the customer. As soon as the door shut, Yuuji burst out laughing.

"Did she seriously believe that you're Makimoto-san?" He asked, trying hard to keep from laughing too loud lest Ayumi hear.

"I _am_ Makimoto-san, remember?" Makoto made it more of a statement than a question as he snickered silently.

"You know what I mean. How could you have pulled that off though? You're wearing a flight attendant's uniform, and your name tag says Makimoto Makoto…" Yuuji trailed off, casting an inquiring look at the man who was desperately trying to compose himself in case Ayumi decided to come back in.

"That's simple. Keiichiro always changes to this uniform when he gets on the plane, and Ayumi-chan hasn't exactly got the best vision ever. I was standing far enough away that she couldn't read my name tag." He grinned devilishly and brushed a few imaginary specks of dirt off his uniform. "Worked like a charm. It helps that she hasn't seen Keiichiro for about a year or so, she's not always on duty when he flies." It was then that the man's cell phone decided to go off, and Makoto instantly snatched the device from his belt.

"What is it?" Yuuji watched as the man's grin got knocked down a few notches.

"Text message. Rei-san and Trent-san haven't responded to repeated calls to their walkie-talkie. Most likely they've not heard it, but on the off chance that that's not the case…" He didn't need to finish the sentence. Yuuji narrowed his eyes in thought, and then opened his mouth to speak.

"Text back and tell them to expect the worst."

"What?"

"Rei is too organized to let something like a walkie-talkie go missing, plus his hearing's so good he would have picked it up in an instant, and Trent wouldn't have headed out on a dead, or near dead, battery. Tell them to expect the worst." The teen held eye contact with Makoto for a little while before the man turned around. There was nothing but the sound of keys getting pressed as he brought the phone up to his ear and waited. Silence. A click, a few rapid exchanges, then… Nothing.

"Hello? Are you still there? Keiichiro, this isn't funny…" Makoto furrowed his brow as he paced along the aisle. The man who had seemed so laid back a few seconds ago was now anxiously biting his bottom lip, listening to his phone tell him the line was dead.

"So?" The dark haired translator smoothly turned in his seat so he could get a better view of the flight attendant.

"Keiichiro said that he's lost sight of Takao-san and Kyouju-san now… and his cell phone battery just died on him…" The man looked angrily out the window, before slumping into a seat opposite Yuuji. Running a hand through his hair, Makoto stared at his cell phone as if pleading it to make the connection work again.

"It doesn't sound like anyone's hurt. What're you getting all worked up for?" The teen rested his head on a hand, slight boredom creeping into his gaze. "There's nothing we can do about it anyway." He stated, his voice indicating that he was now tiring of the subject.

"Do you have any siblings, Yuuji-san?" The question caught Yuuji off guard, and he raised an eyebrow at the man before shaking his head. "Anyone special?" Again, a shake of the head. "Well when you do, you'll understand." There was a stunned silence as the teen recovered from that statement, and the next time he spoke was with a slightly softened tone.

"Well, worrying won't do anything."

"I suppose you're right…"

&&&&

Trent was sitting cross-legged on a trash bin, leaning back onto his hands and surveying the scene in front of him. Rei was looking over the map, turning it every which way and growling slightly, his pointed teeth poking out from under his upper lip. Takao, Kyouju, Max and Terry on the other hand were either pacing around annoyed, chatting, or gazing down alleyways with a half-here-half-not sort of expression on their face.

How the teens had all met up was actually quite a mystery, however they were together, so they figured they might as well stay that way. It kind of helped that none of them had any means of communication. You see, all of their walkie-talkies had either mysteriously disappeared, been crushed by random flying blades of doom, or been pick-pocketed off of them. All of those were probably connected somehow if they decided to pursue the idea, but they had more pressing matters on their hands. They were lost, and they still hadn't found Kai.

"Well, this is just great." Rei growled, crumpling up the map of Tokyo and lobbing it at Trent. "I can't read a character of this, and we're in the middle of no-man's-land. Plus, there aren't any signs around here, so we couldn't go off of that." He sighed, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. "This is entirely stupid." A few gasps were heard as the teen uttered this.

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard? Has Rei-kun finally showed us his dark side?" Takao gasped so loud and hard after he said this that he started coughing. A few laughs followed this, but most of the teens were now in a sour mood, and were kind of glad that Rei had voiced their thoughts.

"It's true I guess, we can't find any sign of Kai-san, and we've gotten lost with no means of communication. Could it get any worse?" Kyouju wailed, hopping around nervously. "I mean, how are we going to get back to the plane in time? What time is it anyway?" The teen was on the verge of hyperventilating, so Terry had him sit down and carefully lead him through some deep breathing exercises.

"In through the nose, and out through the mouth… That's it." The blue-haired Canadian instructed the Japanese teen until he was breathing normally, and gave him a few reassuring pats on the shoulder. "Good, feel better now?" The brunette nodded, taking another breath in. "Anyhow, we still have forty-five minutes to go before we need to get back on the plane… Should we dedicate it to finding Kai, or getting out of here?" Once the Canadian was sure that Kyouju was going to be all right, he vaulted on top of the trash bin to join his fellow translator.

"Kai's close." This statement sent everyone into shock, since Trent sounded so sure of himself when he said it. The translator had closed his eyes, and had a look of complete concentration on his face. Stunned silence, as everyone cast strange looks at the translator who was now getting off the trash bin.

"… And… How did you know that?" Max attempted to raise an eyebrow, but failed miserably. It was just one thing after another today, surprise after surprise after surprise.

"Just a feeling." The teens were hoping that the translator would elaborate on the matter, however it didn't seem that there would be anything more. "Are we going or not?" By now, the Canadian was already at the opening of the next alleyway, pointing down it and looking expectantly at the rest of the teens. After a round of shrugging and confused looks, all of them headed out, following Trent into the unknown of Tokyo.

The alleys were like an unending maze of twists and turns, and the team found themselves marvelling at how Kai managed to navigate his way around with no problems that they knew of. Noise was muffled, they were in the inner workings of the living, breathing, bustling city of Tokyo, with no idea as to where they were, or how to get out. The only person that seemed confident was Trent, who calmly lead the pack of teenagers down alleyway after alleyway. There was silence as the teens walked, other than the small noises that managed to reach this far in, and the lack of noise was driving Takao insane.

"SO! Terry-kun… How do we know that this guy isn't getting us even more lost, huh? I mean, he could just be acting all secretive because he's planning on leaving us stranded in the middle of the city all by ourselves with no way out…" The Japanese teen yawned as he said this, clapping a hand noisily over his mouth.

"You really think that's what's going to happen?" Terry asked, looking over the other teen with an unbelieving expression on his face. "You've got the wrong guy."

"But still, how do we know that he knows where he's going?" Max piped in, anxiously watching the teen up ahead to make sure he couldn't hear the talk about him.

"Relax okay? He'll get us where we need to go, so stop worrying so much." There was an edge to the Canadian's voice as he said this, and the other teens backed away on the subject. For the usually happy-go-lucky teen to sound even the slightest bit annoyed was not a good sign, and no one wanted to be the one who pushed him over the edge. They didn't know what would happen, since it hadn't yet, but from what Trent had warned, it wasn't a pretty sight. They left that topic of conversation unexplored, as they noticed that the alleys seemed to be getting slightly less tangled, and more noise filtered through the buildings around them. "Told ya!" The small fact that Trent seemed to be guiding them out of the mess of alleys seemed to be enough to cheer up his fellow translator, and the tension in the air was immediately cut by more than half. He was now beaming from ear to ear, and the teens made a mental note that it didn't take much to distract Terry from re-enacting the explosion of Mount Vesuvius.

"Okay, okay, we admit we were wrong in doubting Trent-kun's amazing abilities, but I don't see any Ka-" Takao was cut off by the silent team captain suddenly coming into sight up ahead. Surrounding him were three boys, and one girl who seemed to be heatedly debating things amongst themselves. Kai had crossed his arms and was glaring straight ahead, as the teens turned to talk to him. They shouted at him, before shaking their heads and glancing at one another. Their frustration seemed to be growing as the Russian teen refused to even acknowledge that they were there, not even lifting a finger in response. Part of that might have been attributed to the fact that he had no idea what was being said, but even if he was able to understand, he probably wouldn't have done anything. There was a little more shouting, before one of the teens turned around and noticed the small band of teenagers standing at the opening of the alley.

"Who're you?" The youth demanded, his gaze flicking over each teen in turn. He paused for a second as his eyes fell on Rei, but he said nothing of it. "What are you doing here?" The two translators looked at each other for a second in shock. They hadn't expected this. The teen in front of them… was not speaking Japanese as they had assumed he would, but, of all languages, Mandarin. Rei froze.

"I'm… assuming you know him?" Max ventured, taking in the look on the Chinese teen's face. Rei sort of made a noise somewhere between a hiss, a growl, and a choke before making a face and shaking his head slightly. He didn't want to go there right now. "I suppose that you don't want to talk about it?" the American asked again, trying to get some sort of verbal response other than noises. It wasn't really working. The raven-haired teen next to him wasn't intent on talking at the moment.

"Well, hi there!" Terry attempted, smiling at the teens in front of him. They gave him a look that read somewhere between astonishment and annoyance, before one of the other boys spoke up. He was fairly large, not just in the wide way, but in the tall way too. Although he towered over the rest of the teens, he didn't seem very intimidating, and at the moment he was the teen with the kindest look on his features.

"You… you speak Mandarin? And well too?" He asked, looking over the blue haired Canadian. The teens with him seemed to be still in shock. "I might have guessed the boy next to you, but not you, no, not you." Terry laughed.

"Really? Some people think I look Oriental, but there's nothing of it in me!" the Canadian grinned, and some of the tension began to slowly evaporate. Max even managed to laugh at the comment.

"So, what are you here for?" one of the other teens demanded, this one shorter and more sly looking. This time it was Kai who spoke up, much to the entire crowd of teen's disbelief. Some even jumped at the sound of his voice.

"They're here for me." He answered simply, looking up and glowering at his team. The boys weren't deterred.

"You have to come back with us! Our flight leaves in like… half an hour, and there are people everywhere looking for you! Come on, don't be selfish, it's not fair to the rest of us!" Takao ranted and raged for a few minutes at the Russian teen, his face becoming almost red enough to be a stop sign. All through the rant, the Chinese teens around Kai simply stood and watched in amusement as the teen was told off by his teammate. The girl kept casting Rei glances, some of them annoyed, others hopeful, and still others downright angry. The raven haired teen didn't seem to be noticing the continuous attention he was attracting from the girl, although he might have just been trying to ignore her. This caused the girl to look even more annoyed and desperate as she tried to grab his attention.

After Takao basically threatened to kill Kai if he didn't come with them, the teen showed signs of possibly moving from the spot he'd been in since they'd encountered him. In an explosive end, the Russian teen eventually began walking away, back through the alleys supposedly on his way to the meeting spot that Takao had told him about in his rant. The rest of the teens quickly turned tail and followed him, leaving the Chinese teens to themselves.

"That was… quite interesting." One of them commented once the other teens were out of earshot.

"Indeed" agreed the other.

&&&&

There was scrambling, constant walkie-talkie calling and over all chaos as the teens returned to the agreed meeting place, with Kai in tow. Dozens of guards were called back from scouring the alleys and streets of Tokyo, calls going out telling them that the objective had been achieved, the Russian teen had been found. Moreover, he appeared to be in the mood to co-operate, so it was even better than they had expected. There was a slight air of panic as some guards reported that they couldn't get a hold of Keiichiro on his phone or his walkie-talkie. After contacting Makoto, the men were in even more of a frenzy as they were informed of Keiichiro's dead battery, and his lack of a communication device. They were just about to dispatch more people to go look for the translator, when he showed up in a taxi looking slightly rumpled, but none too worse for the wear. He appeared surprised as soon as he caught sight of Kai, and was then quick to usher the boys into a near by cab to get rushed back to the airport. Time was ticking away, and with only ten minutes left the teens blasted through security once more, and ran for the plane like the devil was on their backs. Makoto was standing anxiously at the doorway, a look of utter relief washing over his face when he saw the teens on their way. Greeting them, he basically tackled his younger brother as he repeatedly told the man off for scaring him like that.

"I'm… I'm sorry! Ack, get off of me, it wasn't that much of a scare!" Keiichiro protested, attempting to pry his older brother off of him.

"It was! Do you know how bad it is to be on the receiving end of a call like the one you gave me? Do you? You don't! What if something had happened?" The teens almost found it amusing how Makoto was so shaken up about the matter, but it was also nice to see how much he cared. However, Keiichiro didn't seem to share the sentiments and was quite comically struggling to get away. Now that the teens were able to properly compare the two men, they took advantage of the situation to try and find a difference. However, none of them managed to, so they simply settled for watching as Keiichiro acted in a way they'd never seen before.

"Makoto! Get off of me! Come on, this isn't fair, you're shutting down my circulatory system!" Keiichiro tugged at the older man's arm, trying desperately to move it, and turning quite red in the process. After a few more protests, Makoto let go and held his brother by the shoulders at arm's length.

"You're okay right? Nothing happened? Take off that suit, you're making me sweat just looking at you!" As the flight attendant's gaze flicked over the other man, the translator simply sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You're not much different, I'm surprised Tsukishiro-san managed to get you to do up your jacket and keep your sleeves down." At the mention of her name, the female popped her head out the door.

"Ah! Keii…chi…ro…-sa…n…" The woman trailed off, noticing that both men were looking at her expectantly as if waiting for the question she seemed to be ready to pose. Rubbing her temples, Ayumi looked from one to the other and the teens could see the gears working as she tried to figure out who was who. Finally seeming to decide, she turned to face the translator with a look of exasperation.

"So, not only did you steal his search area, but you also stole his clothes! You're impossible!" Ayumi threw up her hands in annoyance, as the man to whom the comment was aimed looked perplexed.

"What?" Was the simple question, as Keiichiro tried to figure out what he'd done wrong and whose clothes he'd stolen.

"Don't you play dumb with me Makoto! You just had to ruin Keiichiro-san's reputation didn't you? I bet you that you didn't even look for Hiwatari-san!" The woman looked quite ready to beat the man with a blunt object, and it quickly became apparent that she favoured Keiichiro over Makoto. Heck, she even gave Keiichiro an honorific, while Makoto was left with none. The translator spent a few seconds looking perplexed, before a mischievous look settled on his features. The teens were surprised, the man always seemed so formal with them, and now he was showing them a completely different side to his personality they couldn't have imagined.

"Ah, Ayumi-cccchhhhaaaannnnn! It's not my fault that the airplane is stuffy and hot! Wouldn't you like to get out of it? Plus, we could pull off the switch, so why not?" Grinning cheekily, Keiichiro crossed his arms and nodded. "Anyway, I wouldn't ruin your precious Keiichiro's reputation, why would I? He'd just go and ruin mine!" At this comment, Ayumi glared daggers towards the man.

"You don't have any reputation left to ruin!" She seethed, and Makoto placed a hand gently on her shoulder as if to try and calm her down.

"Please don't listen to him, he's just trying to rile you up. Besides, I was the one who agreed to go along with the idea…" He trailed off, watching as the woman instantly changed attitudes.

"Don't try and take the blame Keiichiro-san! You know full well that it was all that brother of yours' fault! I wish that you'd stop trying to protect him, one day you're not going to be there to help him!" Keiichiro looked offended, as Makoto rubbed the woman's shoulder soothingly.

"Makoto is my brother, I care for him no matter what he does." the flight attendant stated, and the woman again began to calm down. "Anyway, what is it that you wanted to tell me that you came out here for?" It was as if a light had gone on in the woman's mind, and she instantly turned to face her co-worker (though she was fairly convinced he was her beloved translator).

"That's right! The plane is leaving soon, are you going to be on this flight or the next?" she asked, looking hopefully at the man.

"I have to go back to Daitenji-san, so I'll switch clothes with Makoto and return to the Beyblade Corp. office building." At this statement, the woman instantly looked saddened.

"But, you'll have me to keep you company!" Keiichiro chimed in, grinning from ear-to-ear. Ayumi simply glared.

"Perfect, just what I needed." She grumbled, heading back onto the plane.

-----

... I do believe my OCs are taking over... Yup... Anyway, I don't know the Japanese names for other characters, so I'll (unfortunately) be using the English dub names for the rest of them. Don't forget to vote on your two favourite OCs! (Terry, Trent, Yuuji, Nathaniel, Kenji, Rebecca, Wyatt, Keiichiro, Makoto, Mamoru, or Ayumi) I'll try hard to keep things going! Later!


	12. Magical Mishaps

HOMGosh guys, I'm so sorry I left you. You can flame me/hate me/not reply/not read this as you please. It's sort of short, but I thought I ought to give you at least SOMETHING. Uhm. Yeah.

Disclaimer: Do I even need to do this? I don't own anything except my characters, and this idea. I'm still hoping that they will take my bid of 1 cent though...

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The flight was as uneventful as it possibly could be, what with all of that confusion and excitement so early on. The brothers supposedly 'switched' clothes, Keiichiro hopefully leaving back for Beyblade Corp. and Makoto staying to serve on the plane. No one was exactly sure if that actually happened, and throughout the flight the teens attempted to figure out if it really was Makoto who was with them, or if it was Keiichiro with his scarily good acting skills. The man had proven to be so good at imitating his older brother that the teens were almost convinced that he actually was Makoto, even though they had previous knowledge he was Keiichiro. At least, they hoped he was. A theory was formulated by Kyouju that perhaps the names were really nothing more than characters that the men went between as they pleased. As cool as that may have been if it was true, it was so unbelievable that the thought was quickly nixed.

Time was passed contemplating the differences between the brothers (the teens assumed they were twins, but didn't ask), singing as many versions of the same camp song as humanly possible (including in different languages), driving certain female flight attendants up the wall (with "Makoto's" help of course), and (surprisingly) sleeping. The morning run around had taken its toll on the teens, having been the earliest they'd ever gotten up. Sure, training had demanded early wake up calls, but that had been around a half decent time when normal people might actually get up. At least, the teens willed themselves to think that. It was really the only thing that kept them sane as they steeled themselves for another gruelling day.

Naptime was abruptly interrupted by the plane touching down at the Hong Kong airport, that and the fact that Takao had been so desperately hungry that he had taken to chewing on people's heads. Rei had the misfortune of waking up with the Japanese teen chomping on the end of his ponytail, something that was sure to leave split ends and bits of unidentifiable matter. Needless to say, Takao was not in the upright position as the plane was about to land, nor was Rei. Both teens went careening into the seats ahead of them, which were luckily empty due to people having the sense to evacuate the area. Between Rei's cussing in Mandarin and Takao's whining in Japanese, the teens managed to figure out some of what was going on. Makoto was making announcements over the PA system of the plane, switching adeptly from Japanese to English, then letting another male flight attendant take care of the Mandarin. Kai didn't seem all that concerned with knowing where they were, since even as Terry attempted to translate their current location and other interesting tidbits ("Please don't forget to smile as you leave!" Makoto's enthusiastic voice urged the passengers over the PA) the Russian teen simply brushed him off in order to begin scouring the luggage holds.

None of the teens were able to locate their backpacks and small luggage, and none of them thought to ask the one boy who had stayed back. Therefore, Yuuji simply sat with a self-satisfied smirk resting upon his lips as he watched the other teens attempt to figure out where everything was. Apparently either Makoto was an expert at hiding things, or the teens were blind and unable to find things themselves. By the way that they passed over the most obvious place to put things, it seemed that it was the latter. Makoto eventually showed up after finishing his announcements, watching in utter amusement as Takao attempted to naw his way through the lock on the largest overhead compartment, before deciding to actually make himself useful by making witty remarks.

"Seriously kiddos, we'll be taking off again before you're even halfway out the plane" the man snickered, watching as even the seemingly-sensible Rei took to banging frustratedly on another compartment. After a couple more seconds of cussing and dagger glaring (mostly on a certain Russian teen's part) Makoto gave in and decided he'd have to produce the keys. It was the kind of magic trick that you expected from your grandfather, or even worse, your younger brother who begged your grandfather to learn the super secret grandpa trick. Oh yes. It was the 'I am now magically producing -insert random object here- from your ear/nose/any other facial orafice that might suffice' trick. And the subject of this magical grandpa gimmick was someone who was not entirely willing to gaze in wonder at the object produced.

You guessed it.

Kai.

God only knows what made the translator/flight attendant decide to choose Kai as his 'assistant', but things did go surprisingly well until Makoto actually leaned in closer to produce the keys.

That was when things went to Hell.

"Don't touch me... you pervert" The last part was tacked on almost as if the mere mention of the word might stop the man in motion. It didn't.

"I'm sorry, I don't speak Russian." Makoto stated sweetly, ignoring Terry's play-by-play translation, before leaning in a little closer to spite the slate-haired youth. His hand was outstretched, ready to pull the keys from the thin air surrounding Kai's ear, before the teen lashed out.

"I. Said. Don't. Touch. Me." Every word was ground through clenched teeth, and his grip on the older man's arm tightened by a startling amount. There was almost disbelief in the air when the surrounding teens didn't hear a bone snap.

"Well, this doesn't require touching. I promise." There was an almost chilling tone to the man's otherwise friendly voice, as he looked pointedly at the contact being made by the Russian teen. Kai took the hint, and let go. Allowing himself a small smile, Makoto reached the rest of the way over, searched behind the unwilling teen's ear, and produced the keys with the kind of flourish that would have been cheesy had he not pulled it off so well. "See? No touching." He said that more matter-of-factly than anything, and smugly gave the keys a shake as if that were proof enough. This did not impress Kai. It did, however, thoroughly impress two teammates of his.

"Ohmygosh, Gee-chan does that all the time, but I never figured out how! I thought it was an old man thing!" Takao exclaimed loudly, obviously oblivious to the tension in the cabin, or cleverly trying to lift it. Either way, it worked. Makoto broke out into the kind of award-winning grin that would probably have sold millions of Crest toothpastes within seconds of exposure, or at least made anyone near enough to it smile too. Unless they were an alien, which Kai obviously was.

"Takao, that's insulting! Mr. Makimoto is too young to be old!" Max blurted, before realizing how stupid he sounded. God, what was with him and saying stupid things today? Perhaps all of those pillows to the head were finally taking their toll... Terry obviously had had the same thought at the exact same moment, because the blue haired youth insantly broke out into a giggle fit of epic proportions.

"Call me Makoto, please. Mister makes me feel old." The flight attendant grinned. "You can call my more 'official' brother Mr. Makimoto. It'll make him feel special." He looked so sincere as he said the latter comment that even Trent lost his composure. It was quickly becoming clear that Makoto was not into the concept of growing up, and even though he was a complete clone of his brother (or vice versa, one couldn't be too sure of these things) he seemed almost to be in his late teens at most, compared to Keiichiro, who gave the impression of someone just under thirty. When he wasn't immitating his older brother, that is. "Catch!" the man called, and he lobbed his keys in the general direction of Rei. This confused the teens, as they were quite certain the luggage compartments were not going to open without the proper unlocking device. AKA, the keys that had just been thrown to one of their own. Rei considered that he might have to open the offending dungeon guard himself, however Makoto held up a hand dramatically before motioning towards the compartment. "Now, watch." With all the eyes of the teens on him, he carefully pulled the handle of the offending baggage holder over to the side, before lifting it up. Almost immediately, there was much groaning and slapping of hands to foreheads, as the entire group noticed a sign located above the handle, neatly illustrated in red. Even language barriers would not be an excuse this time.

"Tah-DAH!" Makoto relayed enthusiastically, even inserting jazz hands for the benefit of all in attendance. "Your luggage, sirs." He grinned before bouncing off to go 'help' Ayumi unload the rest of the passengers still on the plane, effectively running away from six very stunned teenagers. The seventh was silently in stitches on a chair just out of arms' reach of the other boys. He had chosen his spot wisely, since they all turned on him within seconds of Makoto's get away.

"YUUJI!" The cry was loud enough to be heard on the other side of the plane, and caused many passengers distress as they unloaded themselves. Makoto's cheerful assurance that only the person by that name was going to be brutally murdered somehow didn't manage to assuage their fears. The mentioned teen was already making his break for it, with the others close on his heels. He allowed himself a pause when he came to Makoto, rapidly exchanging a couple words with the man, which caused a wicked smirk to briefly cross the flight attendant's face. With that, Yuuji melted into the crowd, his formal attire neatly blending him in with the dozens of businessmen crowding the terminal. Takao swore loudly when he reached the plane's exit, his eyes scanning the crowd with an almost savage hunger. Many of the remaining passengers took a few steps away, sensing immediate danger, and fearing for their lives.

"Just out of interest, how much do you dislike this Yuuji fellow?" Makoto asked, eyeing the riled up mob infront of him with necessary caution.

"An impossibly immesurable amount." Max replied, his face as serious as it could be. Makoto nodded in an almost knowing manner.

"Dear oh dear oh dear. And he seemed like such a nice boy." He tutted lightly, before holding out his hand expectantly. The teens all gave him a blank look. Raising an eyebrow, he reached out further towards the teens and held his hand palm up, motioning for something. After a few more seconds of blank looks, he sighed in defeat. "I'd like my keys back, please." It almost sounded like some sort of arduous task to actual word his want, however he managed to with only slight exhaustion.

"I actually think that you owe us your keys, since you cheated us with them." Rei said, one hand on his hip, the other dangling Makoto's keys. The man looked taken-aback by this comment.

"And here I thought you were a nice boy, too. I must be losing my touch." His mock surprise was soon replaced with the kind of suspicious smile someone gives you when they know something you don't know. "You're welcome to keep them if you like." The innocence in his voice had some of the female passengers swooning.

"O... kay... I will then..." Rei's unsure tone only succeeded in making Makoto look even more cheerfully suspicious, and as the teens exited the plane lugging their baggage behind them, they looked back to see that Makoto was waving them on, smiling all the while.

"Well, if that wasn't the wierdest thing that's ever happened to me, I really don't know what is." Max put in, still periodically checking over his shoulder to see what was happening, and if the man was going to flying tackle them from behind or something. Evidently, he was not, since his attention was swiftly turned from the leaving teenagers to a very pretty young lady who seemed to be having trouble getting her baggage through the aisle. Ayumi seemed to be fuming off to the side.

"You know, those two argue like a married couple." Rei laughed, watching as Makoto gave the young lady more attention that she really needed, obviously exagerating his enjoyment of her company to spite his co-worker. At this, Trent snickered.

"More like a mom and her stubborn child." He said in an off hand manner, moving his gaze from the door of the plane to the maze of people ahead of them.

"But he's not married, is he?" Max asked, anxiously still looking backwards every-so-often, worried that perhaps Makoto was planning on calling them thieves later on when his brother was present. "I didn't see any ring on his finger." Rei looked thoughtful for a moment, before shrugging.

"He seems too immature to even consider commitment. I bet it's not even a word in his vocabulary." The Chinese teen finished saying this before a devilish grin took over his features. "Why are you asking, are you considering proposing or something?" He dodged an attempt at his life, before hurrying ahead, glad of the crowd.

"You better watch your back!" Max growled, shaking his fist in the stereotypical gypped-villian manner. He was just about to carry out his threat, before he noticed a man standing off to the side of the atrium that the teens had entered. "Oy, look over there!" he called, motioning for the rest of the group to notice the man lofting a sign with bright words scrawled all over it. Each language had it's own colour, and they were slapped hap-hazardly against one another in a jumble of multi-cultural mush. Each of the teens managed to make out their names from the rainbow of pen scrawl, and decided that they may as well head over.

As they neared, they noticed another teenager making his way across the floor, smoothly slipping his way through the crowd, though he was headed against it. In one hand, he held two coffee cups stacked on top of each other, in the other, a bag that clearly held baked confectionaries of some sort. When he reached the sign man, he offered a cup and produced a doughnut from the bag, propping the discarded sign on the wall.

"There you are!" the least liked teenager called, waving generously at the approaching team. "I had a couple minutes to spare, and figured that running some errands wouldn't hurt. Would you like some?" The question was directed at Max, who vigorously shook his head no. The teen shrugged. "Your loss." he mouthed, before biting into the doughnut and chewing thoughtfully. "Oh yes, and this is our chauffeur." The comment was almost added on as an after thought, as he motioned to the official man standing next to him. The man smiled appreciatively, sipping at his coffee and taking a few nibbles out of his doughnut.

"Yuuji?" Trent inquired, keeping his gaze even as he locked eyes with the other teen.

"Hmm?"

"What are you plotting with our good friend the flight attendant?"

"Nothing really. Why would you ask?" There is always most definately something up when someone answers like that. Especially if that someone happens to be Yuuji.

"What were you saying as you left then?" Trent's suspicion was quickly becoming clear, as he let a firm frown etch it's way into his lips.

"I said "I'll get you for this."" Yuuji's matter-of-fact tone neatly made him seem more credible than he actually should have been.

"And he replied?"

"I'm counting on it."

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Oh dear. What is Yuuji up to? More importantly, what is Makoto up to? Anyhow, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE either tell me in a reply, or vote on the nifty little poll I've set up on my bio page (which doesn't require replying at all), or message me or SOMETHING which five OCs you want in a thanks picture. If you really want to know what's going on with my life you can keep tabs on me by checking out the journal on my deviant art page, the link for which can also be found on my bio page. As always, constructive critisizm is most definately welcomed, I'm constantly looking to improve!


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